Early Winter at Cenade 1980

Viorel Marginean made this painting, Early Winter at Cenade, with what looks like oil on canvas. I imagine him building up the image, one colour over another, trying out the relationships between warm earthy oranges and browns, and cold snowy whites and blues. There is an interesting push-pull between abstraction and representation here. I wonder if Marginean stood in front of the Cenade landscape and tried to capture what he saw, or worked from memory, distilling the essence of a winter scene. I find myself particularly drawn to the little pops of colour. Like the small, vibrant dots scattered across the mountain, each dab of paint feels intentional, breathing life into the scene. The texture of the canvas, visible beneath the layers of paint, adds another layer of complexity. Painters are magpies, we gather little bits and pieces from the world around us, from other paintings, and from our own memories. We rework and reimagine, hoping to create something new.