"Liberty" Bottle 1935 - 1942

Maud Holme captured this “Liberty” Bottle in green paint, rendering a glass object as a painting. It's as though she's not just depicting something, but trying to feel her way into its very existence. I can imagine Holme, brush in hand, circling the bottle, trying to capture the elusive play of light on glass, those subtle shifts from emerald to viridian. The way she teases out the eagle and the word ‘liberty’ from the murk of the green... It reminds me of Morandi and his bottles. The texture of the paint is crucial here. Is it thick and gloopy, or thinned down to a watery glaze? It's not just about color, but also about the feel of the stuff—how it catches the light, how it sits on the surface. Each brushstroke a record of her looking, her feeling, her struggle to make sense of what she sees. Holme isn’t alone in this endeavor. We are all in conversation with one another, each adding our own brushstroke to the ongoing story of painting.