Still life "Flowers with nuts" 1948

Kateryna Bilokur made this painting, "Flowers with Nuts", and it’s just bursting with life, an absolute explosion of color. You can tell she knew her way around a brush and had a real feel for the process. The painting is so lush, dense even, with layer upon layer of pigment. Up close, the surface is a tapestry of tiny marks. In the bottom right, there are these broad green leaves that look almost tropical. Bilokur somehow manages to capture the light shimmering on their surfaces with all these little touches of yellow. This painting reminds me a little of Henri Rousseau, who, like Bilokur, had a unique way of seeing the world, a way of rendering it back to us that feels both familiar and utterly strange. There are no fixed meanings, just an invitation to look closer, to get lost in the details.