Girl's Coat 1935 - 1942

Nancy Crimi painted this "Girl's Coat" with watercolor, and you can almost feel the fabric come alive. I think about Nancy, living from 1855 to 1995; that's a long life, and who knows what she saw, or what memories she might have poured into this image of a girl's coat. It’s like she's not just painting a coat; she’s painting a feeling, a memory, a story. The red stripes against the grey, they're so precise, so neatly done. I can imagine her carefully laying down each stroke, making sure every line is just right. There's something about the way the coat hangs, a sense of stillness, almost as if the girl who wore it has just stepped away. It reminds me a bit of Fairfield Porter’s domestic scenes, the way he captured the quiet beauty of everyday life. Artists, we’re all just trying to capture something real, something true, in our own way.