Garden at Văratec 1987

Horia Bernea made this painting of a garden at Varatec, probably in 1978, using oil on canvas. It looks like Bernea applied the paint in short, choppy strokes, especially in the foliage, creating a lively surface. It feels immediate, like it was done on the spot. The painting is mostly greens and blues, nature's basic palette. Looking closely, the texture of the brushstrokes gives everything a kind of shimmering quality. See how the short, broken strokes of green and brown in the hillside make the ground seem to vibrate and breathe. Bernea wasn’t interested in photorealism. Instead, he was trying to capture the feeling of being in this place, with all the sensory information that entails. There's a beautiful humility in how Bernea approaches his subject, recalling Cezanne's landscapes. The painting invites us to slow down, to look closely, and to appreciate the world around us, and isn’t that the point of art in the first place?