Love on the beach 1992

Oleg Holosiy made this beach scene in oil paint, and I can only imagine the process of its becoming. The paint is thin, washy, drippy… It’s like he’s chasing after a feeling, a memory perhaps. I can picture Holosiy standing before this canvas, brush in hand, trying to catch something elusive, the way the light hits the sand, the vastness of the sky and sea. Maybe he wasn't thinking at all. Maybe he was just feeling, letting the brush lead him. That smudge of color right there in the middle, those fleshy, warm marks, almost like bodies…are they the “love” on the beach? Or is love that whole expanse of sandy nothingness? It’s not a slick painting, but it’s this rawness, this tentative touch that stays with you. It reminds me a little of other painters like him, who were trying to capture the world as they felt it, not necessarily as they saw it. That’s the thing about painting; it's an ongoing conversation. We keep building on what others have done, trying to make sense of the world, one brushstroke at a time.