Apples 1953

Pyotr Konchalovsky made this painting of apples with oil on canvas, but when, where or why, who knows? I love the juicy strokes he uses. A kind of impressionistic shorthand that has more to do with feeling than with accuracy. It’s a process, you know? Paint, like life, is a liquid medium. It finds its own level. Look at the way the dabs of green dance around the fruit, and the way the pinks blush through the pale skin. The paint isn’t thick but is applied in layers. See how that scumble of white on the apple furthest right gives it form? It’s a real lesson in how to build up an image, starting with the background and moving to the foreground. It reminds me a bit of Cezanne, who was similarly obsessed with still life and the way light interacts with form. But where Cezanne is all about geometry, Konchalovsky is looser, more playful, less controlled. It’s a reminder that art is an ongoing conversation, an exploration without fixed answers.