Winter Day in the City 1975

Radi Nedelchev painted this winter scene with oils, and the way he’s worked the paint makes me think about the sheer pleasure of building up a surface, bit by bit. It is very textural. I can imagine Nedelchev standing before the canvas, his mind conjuring up this bustling city street. The snow looks thick, almost like he applied it with a palette knife, creating these puffy mounds on the trees and rooftops. There’s a simplicity to the figures, these tiny, colorful shapes amidst the muted tones of the buildings, that reminds me of Breughel. The color palette is restricted, but that makes the pops of color of the figures stand out even more. It’s interesting how folk artists create these distinct visual languages. It’s like they’re inventing their own set of rules, and we, as viewers, get to enter into their unique world. I bet Nedelchev’s work, with its sense of wonder, has nudged countless other artists to find their own voice. Painting has always been a back-and-forth conversation like that.