Fire Extinguisher c. 1940

Loraine Makimson painted this image of a fire extinguisher in watercolour on paper. I'm curious about her choice to paint this object. Was it a common sight, something she wanted to commemorate, or did she see it as a symbol of safety in a dangerous world? The cool blues and precise lines give the object an almost ethereal quality. It's not just a fire extinguisher; it's a carefully observed and rendered form. I wonder what it was like for Makimson to paint this? Did she work slowly and deliberately, capturing every detail, or did she try to capture the essence of the object with quick, expressive strokes? There is a tension between representation and abstraction, where the object is immediately recognisable but also rendered with a level of detail and precision that invites closer looking. You can see the influence of other artists who pushed the boundaries of representation, like Giorgio Morandi with his still-life paintings of bottles and jars. Ultimately, artists are always in dialogue with one another.