Catkin 1950

Kateryna Bilokur made this floral piece called 'Catkin' with what looks like oil on canvas. Bilokur's painting has a real sense of detail. The way she's built up those layers of color gives the flowers a vibrant, almost pulsating quality. What strikes me is how the dark backdrop makes the floral arrangement pop, kind of pushing them forward. Check out the contrast of the white petals against that moody background. It's almost like she's staging them, giving each petal its own little moment to shine, right? You can see the texture of the canvas coming through, not in a distracting way, but it feels like it's a part of the piece. It reminds you that this is paint, it's material, it's labor, not just some perfect vision. It makes me think of Hilma af Klint and the way she used art to express a spiritual connection to nature, and how it's all one big conversation, each artist lending their voice to the mix.