Sunset in the Serengeti 1998

Dmytro Kavsan made this painting, "Sunset in the Serengeti," with a real eye for light and atmosphere, something he seems to achieve through thin washes of oil paint. There's a quietness to it, a feeling of everything settling into place. Looking at the mountain, you can see how Kavsan layers those colors, building up the rock face with soft, almost transparent strokes. The paint isn’t trying to be anything other than itself – it’s not thick or showy. It lets the scene breathe. Then, the small blue figures at the bottom add this strange dreamlike quality; they feel both connected and completely out of place. It’s like he’s reminding us that paintings don’t always need to make perfect sense. Kavsan’s work makes me think of Magritte, actually, with that same sense of gentle surrealism. Just like Magritte, he invites us to consider art as a way of seeing, not just a thing to be seen.