Stone Beer Mug c. 1939

Carl Buergerniss made this watercolour of a beer mug. It’s all blues and whites. I’m picturing Buergerniss at work, maybe even with a beer next to him, carefully building up the image of the mug with layer upon layer of translucent paint. He's really taken his time to get the details right, with those tiny ornate patterns running around the base. I wonder what kind of brush he used for that. That blue is so intense, almost like a memory. And the creamy white figures feel like they're popping out of the surface. It's easy to forget that an artist is in conversation with the object they are making a painting of, each influencing the other. It looks like a great stein, and the artist has managed to imbue the painting of it with some of the same charm. Artists build on each other, picking up ideas here and there, and passing them on like a gift.