"Fish Bitters" Bottle 1935 - 1942

Loraine Makimson painted this "Fish Bitters" Bottle with watercolor to produce a lovely, simple composition. I can imagine the artist sitting quietly, maybe in the sunshine, really looking at this quirky object and translating it onto paper. The honeyed hues create a kind of luminous glow, especially around the scales and the bottle's neck. Look at how the light catches the ridges and curves, giving it a gentle dimensionality. It’s like a study in transparency and form. I wonder if Makimson saw this object as a slice of everyday Americana? It’s like she's saying, "Hey, even a weird old bottle has its own kind of beauty." The precision, the light, the almost documentary feel... it reminds me of some of the work of the American Precisionists like Charles Sheeler, who found poetry in factories and barns. Artists like Makimson show us how to find beauty in the ordinary.