A woman with a hat 1986

Georgi Kovachev painted ‘A Woman With a Hat’ with oil on canvas, and right away, the thing that grabs me is how the colours aren't trying to be realistic, but they're emotionally real. The paint is put on kinda thick, you can see the brushstrokes making these choppy textures, especially in her hat and shawl, and it feels like you're right there in the studio with Kovachev, watching him mix and smear the colours, that sort of process is totally exposed here. The way he uses the greens and blues, not just for the clothing but also bleeding into the background, makes her blend into the world, like she's part of the landscape itself. Take a look at the small stroke of bright yellow in the lower-right corner, that little flash of optimism, which hints at something more, an electric jolt of colour that lifts everything up. It reminds me a bit of how Alice Neel used colour to bring out the inner life of her portraits, that shared spirit is really touching. Art's about seeing and feeling, and this painting, like all the best ones, makes you do both.