Holland Gin Keg c. 1937

Bertha Stefano made this watercolor of a Holland Gin Keg, sometime between the 1920s and 1990 when she died, and it’s got such a lovely muted palette, all soft greys and blues. You can really feel the artist feeling her way through the image, making one mark and then responding to it. It’s all about the push and pull of the artistic process. What I love is the way Stefano handles the texture, those subtle gradations in tone that suggest the rough surface of the keg, almost like you could reach out and touch it. The way she renders that fish, for example – each scale seems to shimmer with reflected light, giving it this incredible sense of depth and volume. I also love the details on the blue circular pattern on the keg; these feel playful, like the image is winking at you. You can see Stefano’s influence in the work of outsider artists like Joseph Yoakum, who similarly embraced intuition and improvisation in their artmaking. It's this constant back-and-forth between artists that keeps things fresh and exciting.