Ukrainian landscape 1925

Boris Kustodiev made this Ukrainian landscape painting, using oil paint, with colours that look like they came straight from the earth. You can almost smell the oil paint mixing with the golden hay! The painting feels like a portal. I'm transported to the Ukrainian countryside, where the clouds look like they are made of cotton, and I wonder, what was Kustodiev thinking when he painted those haystacks? They are so full, as if ready to burst with sunshine and stories of the fields. I see the brushstrokes building the forms, the artist layering on the paint like memories, each stroke a conversation with the canvas. There's a rhythm, a pulse. The dark greens of the trees against the bright blue sky give a sense of depth that pulls you in. It makes me think about other painters like Van Gogh, who used thick paint to express emotion. These artists remind us that painting is more than just representation; it's about feeling, thinking, and living through colour and form.