Breads and the tray 1912

Pyotr Konchalovsky made this painting of bread and a tray with oils on canvas. Look at that juicy brushwork and those bold colours, and you can feel the artist wrestling with the paint, pushing it around to make these humble objects sing. There’s something so physical about the paint here. It's thick and creamy, you can almost taste it. The way he's built up the surfaces of the loaves, layering shades of ochre and cream, makes you want to reach out and touch them. Then there's the tray with that landscape reflected inside. What's going on there? It's like a painting within a painting! The way the colours bleed and blend in that reflection makes me think of a dream, or a memory. Konchalovsky reminds me of someone like Marsden Hartley, another artist who wasn't afraid to get down and dirty with the paint. Both of them show us that art is as much about the process as it is about the final image. It's a conversation, a back-and-forth between the artist and the world.