September Still Life 1976

Sergiy Grigoriev’s ‘September Still Life’ seems to be a rapid, yet tender oil painting, likely made in his studio. I can see him building this scene up, layer by layer, responding to his motifs, allowing the painting to shift and emerge through the delightful process of trial and error. I sympathize with Sergiy here! It’s like he’s trying to capture the essence of a fleeting moment. Look at how the colours interact—the vibrant oranges of the vase and fruit against the cool greens of the tablecloth create such a satisfying harmony! I imagine he was thinking about Cezanne and Matisse. What was he thinking? The texture is also so delicious. The paint is applied with a confident hand, thick in some areas and thin in others, giving the painting a real sense of depth and movement. That one brushstroke of orange defining the edge of the table? A jolt of energy. Artists are constantly in conversation across time. We borrow and steal from one another, inspiring each other’s creative drive. Painting is a form of embodied expression, which embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, and allows for multiple interpretations.