Still Life. Table, books, and the pipes. 1929

Pyotr Konchalovsky’s painting, Still Life. Table, books, and the pipes, is a 100 x 87cm oil painting. The warm earthy palette radiates out from the centre, where objects are clustered on a red table. I'm imagining Konchalovsky circling around this table, brush in hand, eyes squinting, trying to get it just right. I can imagine the artist squinting, really trying to capture the way the light hits that pipe, or the exact shade of red of that book cover. What does it feel like to try and stop time like that? To stare so intensely at a surface? What I love about this painting is the material presence of the paint, those heavy impasto marks. You can almost feel the artist's hand moving across the canvas. The dark shadows hint at the influence of artists such as Cezanne. Painting is such an intimate act, isn’t it? It's a conversation between the artist and the world, across time.