Blue lagoon 2020

Yulia Mamontova made this small but mighty painting, Blue Lagoon, with oil on canvas. You can almost feel the artist dabbing each brushstroke with thick paint. It’s a textural marvel, like the surface of a cake. I imagine Mamontova standing there, smearing blues and turquoises, then flecking gold across the surface, perhaps thinking of glittering light on the water. It’s interesting to think about her process. Did she start with the boat, then build the lagoon around it? Or did the landscape emerge first, with the boat as an afterthought? I find my eye drawn to the gold highlights scattered across the surface. They’re like punctuation marks, guiding my gaze and adding a touch of opulence to the scene. It reminds me of other painters who embrace the materiality of paint, like Van Gogh, who wasn’t afraid to pile it on. Artists like Mamontova remind us that painting is a conversation, across time, and between artists.