Still Life. Flowers on the bench. 1954

Pyotr Konchalovsky made this painting, "Still Life. Flowers on the bench.," with oil, and I’m guessing, a whole lot of love for flowers, but also for the process of painting. Look at how Konchalovsky builds up the image with these quick, staccato marks, especially in the chaotic, blooming explosions of color. It’s like he's chasing after the fleeting beauty of the wildflowers, trying to catch their energy on the canvas. There is something about the way Konchalovsky layers the paint, thick in some areas, thin in others, that really grabs me. See that small patch of white daises in the vase on the left, they just pop right out. It feels like he's not just painting what he sees, but also how he feels, maybe even remembers feeling. The painting is as much about the sensation of being in the presence of these flowers as it is about their visual appearance. I’m reminded of Matisse’s way of using color and composition to convey emotion, that same playful, exploratory approach, where the painting feels alive and in motion. In the end, it's that open-ended, anything-can-happen quality that makes art so endlessly fascinating, right?