Summer 1965

Tetyana Yablonska made this oil painting, Summer, in 1965 with such a juicy and free approach to mark making. The painting isn’t trying to trick you into thinking it’s a photo, it’s there to be looked at. The texture of the paint is palpable, especially in the thick daubs of green and blue that form the landscape. You can see how the brush has loaded up with paint and then skipped across the canvas. These individual strokes of color become an impression of light and shadow that gives the work a feeling of immediacy. Look at the way she has rendered the figures in the foreground, there are just a few swipes of paint but you still read them as people walking. Her work reminds me of Pierre Bonnard, who also had a knack for capturing the feeling of a particular place and time with loose and expressive brushwork. In the end, it’s not about perfectly capturing reality, but about creating a space for the viewer to wander around in, a space to think and to feel.