Temple of Myrrh Bearers 1928

Pyotr Konchalovsky made this painting, Temple of Myrrh Bearers, with oil paint on canvas. It’s all about the juicy strokes of the brush and the way the colors bump up against each other. You can almost feel him making the painting. Look at the way the paint sits on the surface. It’s thick in some spots, especially where he builds up the white walls of the temple, and then kind of thin and washy in the sky. It’s not trying to hide anything, and that’s what I love. You can see the process right there on the canvas. My eye keeps going to the roofs of the buildings with those rusty red brushstrokes. Each stroke feels like a little decision, a little “yes” to the messiness and the joy of painting. It reminds me a bit of early Cezanne, with that same kind of searching and awkwardness that makes it so alive. Art is a conversation, after all. It’s not about getting it “right,” but about embracing the questions and seeing where they take you.