Indian Bottle (Medicine Bottle) 1935 - 1942

Loraine Makimson made this image of an Indian Bottle, or Medicine Bottle, sometime during her lifetime with paint and paper. Just look at the way these brown figures emerge out of the white ground. The artist must have stood at the easel thinking about how to make these forms, and which colours to use. It makes me think about the paintings of Fairfield Porter or Alex Katz. I wonder if they had some influence here? There is a lot of layering of strokes and colours. Brown over yellow, brown over brown. Imagine her, brush in hand, trying to figure out how to evoke a sense of depth and volume in the figures. There is a sense of her really thinking about the problem of painting itself: How do you turn a flat surface into something real? It seems that artists are in an ongoing conversation, exchanging ideas across time, and inspiring one another’s creativity. Painting is a form of embodied expression that allows for multiple interpretations. I wonder how this piece relates to Makimson's other work, and the work of her contemporaries?