A room 1935

Martiros Sarian made this painting, A Room, with what looks like gouache on paper. I love how the colours vibrate against each other. Look at that red and blue. It’s like the whole room is breathing. You can feel the hand of the artist in every brushstroke, nothing is overworked. I'm really drawn to the way Sarian handles the light here. It's not about realism. It's more about feeling the warmth, the atmosphere. The paint is applied in these thin, transparent layers, but then he adds these little pops of thick, opaque colour that really bring the whole thing to life. Check out the way he’s painted the jugs on the shelf. It’s all about capturing the essence of the objects rather than a photographic likeness. Sarian reminds me of Matisse, who had a similar knack for making a scene sing with just a few well-placed strokes. The beauty is in the ambiguity, in the suggestion, and in the feeling it leaves you with.