Landscape with a flowerbed 1917

Boris Kustodiev made this painting of a flowerbed and a landscape with oil paints at some point in his life. And look, it's all about the greens, yellows, blues and reds, isn't it? The way he daubs and strokes these colours together, there's a real sense of the painting being made, a kind of joy in the process. Now, if you look closely, especially at the flowerbed in the foreground, you can almost feel the texture, right? It's not about being smooth or perfect, it's about the physicality of paint, how it sits on the canvas. See how he's used these little dashes and jabs of colour to build up the forms of the flowers? It’s like he’s saying, "Here’s some paint, here’s a flower, now you put them together in your mind." Kustodiev reminds me a little bit of Pierre Bonnard actually, in his love of domestic scenes and the way he uses colour to create atmosphere. Both artists seem to suggest that art isn't about answering questions, it's about opening up possibilities.