The plum tree orchard 1991

Mihai Sârbulescu made "The Plum Tree Orchard", an 85 x 92 cm painting, and it feels like the trees are right there, alive. The surface has a skin of oil paint, alive with texture, like looking at the world through the heavy impasto brushstrokes of a painter. The whole surface is made up of marks, thick, short strokes, which are like the units of a mosaic, or maybe the dabs of Impressionism. Each dab is full of colour and intention, sitting next to another dab, and another. Look at the way the light hits the leaves. Sârbulescu is doing something that feels connected to the way Vincent Van Gogh used color to capture the way light interacts with the world. Both paintings have a certain energy, that brings to mind all the painters who have looked at nature. I get lost in it.