Village Maureeno, Kostroma 1905

Boris Kustodiev painted Village Maureeno, Kostroma, with oils, and it looks like he was searching for something, squinting at the scene. I’m really feeling these dark greens and browns; they’re pulled around the canvas with thin strokes that evoke the damp Russian countryside. Kustodiev must have been trying to pin down a feeling, to recreate that sense of being there, the heaviness in the air. I can see him trying to drag every last drop of emotion from the scene. The artist's eye moves from dark to light as it travels towards the horizon. It is as though we are being led from darkness and gloom into the light. There is an intimacy to this painting that reminds me of Corot, where painting is less about grand statement and more about a personal exchange between the artist and the world. I like to think of paintings as little time capsules, where the energy of making gets sealed in, and it waits there patiently for us to come and let it back out.