Woman in ciociaro costume with flowers 1907

Alexei Harlamoff painted 'Woman in ciociaro costume with flowers' with oils, showing a woman holding a bunch of freshly picked flowers in a loosely defined landscape. I can imagine the woman's face coming together through a collection of small brushstrokes, each carefully placed to build up the contours of her face, her gaze. The painting is so evocative and full of feeling. I picture Harlamoff carefully composing the colors of the blooms and thinking about the overall impression he wants to create. The paint is applied with soft, almost imperceptible brushstrokes, especially around the edges of the figure, which blurs the line between figure and ground. I'm drawn to the way he captures the texture of the woman’s lace blouse, contrasting it with the patterns of her skirt. There’s a kind of visual conversation that happens when you are painting. Each mark influences the next, creating a layered effect. We, as artists, respond to each other across generations, riffing off the ideas of those who came before us.