Princess 2010

Vasiliy Ryabchenko made this painting, Princess, using oils on canvas. It’s pretty big, over two and a half meters wide, so you could really get lost in it. I can just imagine the artist layering those strokes to make the wispy clouds, that sheer yellow curtain, that crazy cat-like thing. What do you think they were thinking as they made it? Is it a dream, a memory, or something they saw? Those dog-like statues are really something. What’s that barely-there halo doing? The paint is thin, like watercolor, and the colours are pale and almost drained of pigment. It looks like it might be a study for something else or maybe something that never got finished. It reminds me of other figurative painting, like Balthus, where a scene is set but doesn't quite resolve, doesn't make sense. What all these artists have in common is not only painting but the process of inquiry.