"Fish Bitters" Bottle 1935 - 1942

Loraine Makimson made this watercolor of a “Fish Bitters” Bottle, and I love how she’s captured the essence of glass, you know? There’s something really gorgeous about the way the light hits that golden surface. Look at the tail fin. She hasn’t fussed with the details but instead given the impression of form through the direction and weight of her marks. There’s a kind of humble reverence in the way she's observed this object. The whole piece feels delicate, almost tentative, but somehow robust too. I’m reminded of those Shaker paintings of everyday objects, where the subject is elevated through careful attention to detail. It seems that, like those artists, Makimson is urging us to really *see* the world around us, to find beauty in the mundane. It's like a quiet poem about seeing.