Untitled 2017

This untitled painting was made by Gennady Mironov using oil on canvas. Looking at this work, it's like stepping into a memory, a quiet moment captured with such care. Mironov's palette is restrained, mostly greens, browns, and whites, but the way he layers those colours! The surface is so smooth it feels like a photograph. But when you get up close, you notice how each blade of grass in the foreground is rendered with such individual care. See how the light catches the cow's coat? It's all so delicate. It reminds me of the Pre-Raphaelites, their meticulous attention to detail, or even a Constable landscape, but with a contemporary twist. There's an ambiguity here too, what is the cow thinking? What is the relationship between the animals and their environment? Mironov invites us to slow down, to contemplate the beauty in the ordinary.