Winter garden 4 2020

Pavlo Makov made this ink on paper work, Winter Garden 4, in 2020. There’s something delicate, almost hesitant, about the lines. It's like each mark is a tiny experiment, a little “what if?” in ink. The paper itself seems to be almost breathing, aged and textured. The garden scene, overlaid with those sharp, connecting lines, gives me a sense of a system, a network, maybe even a little like how we try to map out our own lives. Then you see these plants, each rendered with such care, like tiny portraits. And the birds! The texture isn’t concealed; it’s celebrated, it’s rough and kind of vulnerable. I'm reminded of Agnes Martin’s grids, but with a touch of the botanical. This piece feels like a quiet conversation, an ongoing exchange between the artist, the materials, and, well, whoever’s looking. It’s less about answers and more about the pleasure of looking, the joy of not quite knowing.