Flowers at night 1942

Kateryna Bilokur’s ‘Flowers at Night’ is a painting that seems to come from a dream, made with a dedicated intensity. The way she builds up the image bit by bit, almost pointillist with it’s application of paint, makes me think she's chasing after something fleeting. There's so much to see. The surface feels soft, almost velvety. Look how she layers blues and greens to create a midnight garden, where each flower glows. I'm drawn to the way the paint is applied in tiny dots and dashes. It’s so meticulous. Notice how the darker tones around the edges push the flowers forward, creating a kind of luminous depth. The flowers are observed with such careful attention to detail, it’s as if each one is a portrait. It reminds me of Henri Rousseau, who also painted imagined landscapes with a similar sense of wonder. Both artists invite us into a world that feels both familiar and utterly strange. It’s this kind of vision that reminds me why I love painting.