Still Life. Four bouquets on the table and watering can. 1939

Pyotr Konchalovsky made this explosion of colour with oil on canvas. Just imagine him, brush in hand, coaxing these flowers into being. The canvas is packed, every inch throbbing with blooms! The paint has a thick impasto quality, so you can feel the petals, almost smell them! The dabs and strokes of colour – pinks, yellows, purples, and greens – dance across the surface. I feel a kinship with Konchalovsky when I look at this painting! As an artist myself, I'm always trying to capture that fleeting moment of beauty. Like when light hits just so, and the colours start to sing. I imagine he was trying to hold onto that feeling, to make it last forever, by capturing the way the flowers were arranged and fell into a natural composition. Painters are always in conversation, passing ideas back and forth through the ages. Konchalovsky learned from the great impressionists like Cézanne and Monet, and took what he needed to find his own way of seeing, feeling, and making!