Pensive hare 1990

Oleg Holosiy made this painting, Pensive Hare, in Ukraine, with oil on canvas. Isn't the palette here just so warm? I think you can almost feel the sun beating down on the golden background. It reminds me of the way a memory might feel, hazy and comforting. The figure to the left, though, is all darkness and shadow. You can see the way Holosiy has built up the paint in layers, with these thick impasto marks that give the whole piece such a tactile quality. Have you noticed the hare, how it sits, so still and quiet, with it's hand raised to its face? The cross hatching on the hare reminds me of Durer, or even outsider art! The background texture and color around the hare's whiskers really emphasize how much time the artist has spent on the detail in the face. Looking at this piece I am reminded of other artists like Ensor, who had a knack for imbuing his figures with a sense of melancholic absurdity. Art's such a funny thing, isn't it? It's like we're all just having one big, long conversation across time, riffing off each other's ideas and trying to make sense of the world in our own way.