Liquor Bottle c. 1936

Nicholas Amantea made this drawing of a Liquor Bottle on paper, we don't know when exactly. It looks like he used pencils or crayons and he worked the surface, filling it with colour very evenly. It feels like he didn’t want to leave any white patches. The bottle looks brown, but it’s also got a kind of golden light shining through it, especially on the lower half. You can see the way the colour shifts from dark at the top to light at the bottom. The drawing is really about these subtle changes. I love the dark lines around the edges too, they give the object a clear and definite shape. This drawing is interesting because it reminds me of Giorgio Morandi's still life paintings, he often painted bottles too. But in a different way. Both artists are using simple objects to explore colour and form. Neither is really trying to tell you anything specific. They're interested in the act of seeing and how we can make sense of the world through our own eyes.