The intimate beauty 2018

Soltan Soltanlı made this painting, titled The Intimate Beauty, with what looks like acrylic on canvas, sometime around 2018. Imagine Soltanlı starting with a pale blue sky and then inventing a whole world, one bush, one pond at a time. Each little bush, a separate, self-contained universe! I wonder, was it joy that led him to paint so many of these little ecosystems? The bushes almost look like a formal garden, if a little surreal. And then there are the deer! They give the image a woodland vibe, don’t they? Some of them gaze upwards. Perhaps they too are wondering at this enchanted world above. I imagine Soltanlı might like Rousseau. I’m reminded of his flat, dreamy, jungle scenes. But this isn’t a jungle, is it? It’s a landscape of pure imagination. The artist opens up this space for us to wander in, with no fixed route or meaning. Just the possibility of intimate beauty.