Mallows and roses 1958

Kateryna Bilokur made this painting of mallows and roses, we don’t know when, but it’s bursting with color, light, and life. The brushwork is so incredibly fine, so precise, it’s almost like embroidery. You can just tell she loved painting flowers; it’s a process of devotion. There’s a tension here between detail and overall composition. Each petal, each leaf, is rendered with meticulous care, yet they all come together in a riotous, abundant display. I mean, check out the leaves – the way the light hits them, creating these subtle shifts in tone and texture. This level of observation – and the artist’s ability to translate it into paint – is really something. It makes you want to reach out and touch them. Bilokur reminds me of Henri Rousseau – both of them are self-taught artists who created these incredibly lush, imaginative worlds. There’s something about their vision that feels so personal, so direct, it cuts right through all the artifice.