Boris Kustodiev 2017

Andrey Allakhverdov's painting Boris Kustodiev is an oil on canvas portrait of the artist at work. The palette is quite earthy. Green, red and brown brushstrokes seem to have come into being through a process of trial and error. I can only imagine what it might have been like to have made this painting. I sympathize with the artist. It's a painting of painting! The artist shows a partly nude model sat in the painter's studio. The artist is literally placing himself in the frame as he looks out at us with a piercing gaze, palette in hand. There is a confidence to the way that the artist shows himself in the act of painting. That blue, smock-like shirt the artist wears reminds me of so many other painters that have come before him. So many artists are in an ongoing conversation with painting that has come before, inspiring one another’s creativity. Painting is a form of expression, and it embraces uncertainty. It allows for multiple interpretations.