Wedding Dress c. 1937

This image shows a wedding dress made with pencil and watercolour on paper by Arelia Arbo. I can imagine Arbo gently layering her washes of paint, starting with a ghostly outline on the right, which then builds into a full dress, shimmering with pale yellow. The details emerge: the lace and little blue bows, the cinched waist, the subtle flowers on the skirt. I am sure the artist started with the basic sketch and watched what happened with the paint. The making process led to the painting and the painting led the artist. I wonder what Arbo thought about wedding dresses. The lightness of touch gives the dress a dream-like quality, like it might float away.