Morning. Wind. 1908

David Burliuk made this painting, Morning. Wind., with what looks like generous slabs of oil paint, each brushstroke a dash of pure colour. It’s all about the process here, you can almost feel him wrestling with the scene, trying to capture the liveliness of a windy morning. Up close, you can see how thick the paint is, especially in the foreground where the strokes of green form the wild grasses and flowers at the side of the track. It’s so physical, you can almost feel the wind pushing against you. The way he layers the paint, you can see how each stroke contributes to the overall feeling. I am drawn to how the grass seems to lean into the wind. Burliuk seems to be in conversation with Van Gogh here, the same bold strokes and passion for finding a feeling through the paint. But he makes it his own, showing us how art is always a back-and-forth, an ongoing experiment of seeing and feeling.