Agin steppe. At the summer camp 1951

Mikhail Olennikov painted this scene of Agin Steppe, at summer camp, probably sometime in the late twentieth century, using oil on canvas. It's such a loose, breezy painting, all about the joy of capturing a scene quickly. The brushstrokes are visible, almost like scribbles, especially in the foreground where the greens and browns mix together to give you a sense of the landscape. Look how he builds up the texture, thick in some places, thinner in others, creating a lovely uneven surface. That little wooden building! See how it’s rendered with these quick daubs of color, almost like a child’s drawing, and yet it totally works. It reminds me a bit of some of Milton Avery's landscapes, that same simplicity, and a similar interest in the basic elements of a scene. Ultimately, it's not about precision, it's about feeling and the pleasure of paint.