Untitled

Gladys Nilsson

c. 1966-68

watercolor on paper

4" x 5 1/2"

In 1962, Nilsson began painting with watercolors while she was pregnant: “I was thinking about being clean. You know, we have this tender little baby skin. And there were a couple of kids that I knew in class that had developed horrible allergies to oil paint and turpentine and that. I mean, terrible, where you’d think their flesh was rotting off themselves. They had to wear big rubber gloves!” Nilsson did not receive any formal training in watercolor painting while she was a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; instead she taught herself how to use this challenging medium.

Credit

Gift of the Raymond K. Yoshida Living Trust and Kohler Foundation, Inc.