Landscape from Delphi 1945

Spyros Papaloukas made this landscape of Delphi with oil on canvas. It's like the paint is breathing, isn't it? There's a liveliness in the way the paint is applied, short strokes all moving in the same direction. The materiality here is so present. The paint isn’t trying to hide itself, and you can imagine the artist making each mark, one after the other, building up the image. Look at the yellow area in the foreground. See how the strokes of paint create a kind of shimmering effect? The direction and the color of the strokes give it volume and dimension. Papaloukas reminds me of Cezanne, both so interested in the structure of a landscape. But there is something else too. This work embraces the messiness of seeing and the impossibility of ever truly capturing a place.