Bushes 1923

Pyotr Konchalovsky made this painting, Bushes, with oil on canvas. I love to imagine the artist, probably outdoors, wrestling with the thick paint as he’s trying to capture the light filtering through the leaves. He’s using these juicy daubs of green, brown, and ochre, almost like he's building a wall of color. Look at the surface, it's so textured, you can almost feel the bristles of the brush. The paint is thick but, within the solid mass, there are thin delicate lines that suggest branches. I bet Konchalovsky was thinking about the French Impressionists like Monet or Cezanne, trying to figure out how to make something solid out of something fleeting, like light and shadow. But he's not just copying them, he's pushing it further, making the paint itself the subject, the way it feels to see and touch the world. It's like he's inviting us to step into his experience. We painters, we’re all in conversation, riffing off each other, trying to say something new.