Winter Forest 2016

Aleksander Belyaev made this painting of a winter forest with oil on canvas. It’s all about process; you can really feel the hand of the artist at work, and it’s so loose. The blue and white create a kind of luminescence across the scene, and the artist hasn’t tried to conceal their technique, instead the brushstrokes create the feeling of the chill in the air. Look at how the shadows have been built up with layers of blue. The artist has used the colour to give depth and definition to the snow. The impasto is particularly prevalent here, giving the piece a tactile, almost sculptural quality. It’s as if you can reach out and touch the snow itself. It reminds me of Fairfield Porter. Both artists have a similar way of capturing the quiet beauty of everyday life, and how these moments contain a whole world of feelings. Ultimately, a painting like this reminds us that art is an ongoing conversation, a way of seeing and interpreting the world that's always evolving.