Portrait 1985

This portrait by Oleg Holosiy is rendered with a direct, almost sculptural approach to paint. It's like Holosiy wasn't just depicting a face, but building one, layer by layer. Up close, the surface is a roadmap of gestures. Notice the way he's used the brush to drag the paint, especially in the background and around the shoulders. It's as if the figure is emerging from a haze, or perhaps dissolving into one. The palette is muted, mostly greys and creams, but there's a surprising warmth in the flesh tones, achieved with these little touches of yellow and pink. I keep thinking about that single stroke of dark blue, almost black, on the left shoulder. It's like a shadow, but it's also this potent, concentrated mark that anchors the whole composition. There's a vulnerability here, a quiet intensity that reminds me of Lucian Freud, who was similarly interested in capturing the raw physicality of the human form. With painting, like life, it’s more about the questions than the answers.