Barber's Bottle c. 1936

Edward White made this painting of a Barber's Bottle, we don't know when, using watercolour. It's the kind of painting where you can really see the hand of the artist, the decisions made during the process. The paint is applied in thin, washy layers, giving a sense of transparency. The pinks and reds create a warm, inviting feeling, like a faded memory. I am drawn to the way White depicted the light reflecting off the bottle, those squiggly white lines. They aren't perfectly realistic, but they capture the essence of the glass, how light dances across its surface. They remind me of Cy Twombly's scribbles, or maybe even Agnes Martin’s subtle lines. It’s like White is having a conversation with these artists across time. Ultimately, this painting reminds me that art doesn't always need to be perfect or polished. Sometimes, the beauty lies in the imperfections, in the traces of the artist's hand, in the ambiguity of the image.