Hooked Rug c. 1936

Ruth M. Barnes made this watercolor painting of a hooked rug. The flowers are these bright, clashing colors, and the background is a crackled grey, like an old ceramic glaze. It’s all about process here, you can see that Barnes is working methodically, building up these tiny strokes of paint one by one, almost like the rug hooking process itself. Up close, the texture becomes really apparent. Each flower is made up of these individual, almost mosaic-like marks. Look at the big red one, you can see how each little stroke is slightly different in color and intensity. It's like Barnes is breathing life into each petal, giving them this vibrant, almost pulsating energy. These marks aren’t trying to be perfect, they're about the joy of making, the physicality of the medium, and the slow build of an image. This piece makes me think of Florine Stettheimer, another artist who embraced a kind of joyful amateurism, playing with color and form in unexpected ways. It's a reminder that art doesn't always have to be serious or polished, sometimes the most interesting things happen when we let go and embrace the mess.