Green Still Life 

Editor: Here we have "Green Still Life" by Iwo Zaniewski, crafted using oil paint in what looks like an impasto technique. It’s quite moody, almost monochromatic, and I get this overwhelming feeling of quiet stillness from it. What strikes you when you look at this painting? Curator: Ah, yes, the hushed tones, a veritable symphony in green. What I see is Zaniewski almost wrestling with the subject, rather than simply depicting it. See how the impasto—that thick, textured paint—creates a kind of visual tension? The baroque influence feels present in the dramatic, yet muted light, almost like a memory clinging to form. Do you get a sense of time at all, looking at this? Editor: I do, a little. It feels both old and strangely timeless. Almost as if this scene has been sitting unchanged for decades, with this plant surviving so long. It reminds me of a baroque painting, which can make the painting look very modern by today’s standard, don’t you think? Curator: Precisely! It’s as if Zaniewski took the drama of the Baroque and filtered it through a deeply personal lens. Perhaps even his choice of subject…the teapot…a common object but treated with such reverence and introspection. Is it domesticity? Nostalgia? It is certainly a mystery to me! Editor: It’s amazing how something as simple as a still life can evoke so much. I guess the artist's own introspection somehow translates to the painting, as we reflect upon our past in some way, or our future. Thank you, I can now appreciate the still life, more! Curator: And for me, thinking through it with you offers a lens into understanding how one sees still lives in paintings in the world. There really is magic, isn’t there?