Namur. France. 1908

Pyotr Konchalovsky made this oil painting called Namur, France. The painting is composed of strokes of blues, greens, and browns. I can just imagine him standing there, looking at the town, brush in hand, trying to capture the scene before him. I wonder what he was thinking about as he daubed the paint onto the canvas? I like the way the paint is quite thick here, especially on the rooves. It almost makes the buildings look like they’re breathing. That dark blotch in the foreground—it's a tree. And those greens and blues next to it are fields. It's funny how he reduces everything to these essential marks. Maybe it's about finding the essence of a place, its feeling more than its perfect likeness. Konchalovsky's really in conversation with other painters through time, and each one leaves a little something behind, inspiring the next. And so we keep painting, keep looking, keep seeing in new ways. Painting isn't just about what's on the canvas, but what we bring to it.