Novgorod. Square ​​of St. Sophia Cathedral. 1928

Pyotr Konchalovsky conjured this view of Novgorod’s Square ​​of St. Sophia Cathedral with paint on canvas. Just look at those confident brushstrokes, the way the artist applied paint with such surety! The palette is restrained – greens and blues, set off against the warm gold dome of the cathedral. I imagine Konchalovsky working outdoors, trying to capture the light as it shifts across the buildings. The paint isn't too thick but has a nice impasto in certain areas, like on the leaves of the tree. I can almost feel his hand moving across the canvas, responding to the scene before him but also to the push and pull of the paint itself. What’s so interesting is how he balances the solid forms of the architecture with the more fluid, organic shapes of the trees and sky. The way he's captured a sense of place makes me think of other painters, like the Impressionists, and the way they tried to capture fleeting moments in time. Paintings are ongoing conversations. They show us that there’s no one way to see the world, or any single “right” way to paint it.