A highly impressionistic watercolor, almost to the point of being semi-abstract, the subject a simple clothesline with drying clothes in the wind, signed lower left by important American illustrator, animator and writer Hardie Gramatky (1907-1979), measuring 8 1/2"  by 10" inside the mat opening and 16" by 17 1/2" as framed.  The artist has taken an everyday scene and elevated it to art, as only a true artist can do.  Gramatky was born in Dallas, Texas and moved with his family when young to Southern California.  He studied at Choinard Academy there, and by the late 1920's was already a skilled watercolorist.  In the mid 1930's he went east to New York, achieving museum recognition and becoming heavily involved in commercial art work.  Gramatky was influential in establishing the "California Scene" in watercolor painting.  He worked for Disney as an animator while back on the west coast, before returning to the east after World War II, remaining there for the remainder of his life.  Gramatky was an Academician at the National Academy of Design, one of relatively few watercolorists; in 2006 no less than Andrew Wyeth said that Gramatky was one of America's best watercolorists.  This work is exceptionally clean and fresh, the splashes of color very pronounced.