Still Life with Fruits 1989

Petros Malayan painted this “Still Life with Fruits” with visible brushstrokes and a muted palette of browns, greens, and whites; I can just imagine him, with his brush in hand, leaning forward and back from the canvas, lost in the push and pull of painting. The act of painting itself is a conversation, right? Malayan is in dialogue with the objects he sees, but also with the materiality of paint, how it sits on the surface, how it can be layered and manipulated. It reminds me of Giorgio Morandi, how he's searching for harmony and balance in simple forms. The edges of the forms are blurred, not quite defined, as if Malayan is more interested in the overall feeling than in precise representation. Look at how the white outlines of the plate echo the circular forms of the fruit. It’s like he's trying to capture the essence of the moment, the play of light, the feeling of abundance. Painting, like life, is not about perfection, but about embracing the mess, the uncertainty, and the endless possibilities.