Ray 2020

Pavlo Makov made "Ray" in an unknown year with mixed media on paper. There's a delicate balance here; a softness in the colour palette juxtaposed with an almost unsettling landscape. What strikes me most is how the granular texture of the paper seems integral to the work, becoming part of the image itself. The smudged pastels and diluted washes create a kind of hazy atmosphere, as though we are viewing the scene through a dream. Look at the way he renders the light, soft yellows and oranges merging into a blue sky. Then your eye travels down to these odd, dark shapes arranged in rows, resembling houses or perhaps even gravestones. It reminds me of Philip Guston, who also embraced ambiguity, transforming his practice late in life, but Makov retains a sense of openness. It’s a landscape of memory, not quite representational, not quite abstract, but somewhere in between, inviting us to bring our own associations and interpretations.