Still Life with Mirror 1958

Victor Puzyrkov made this painting, Still Life with Mirror, with oils, and I'm guessing, like me, he was trying to nail that tricky thing called light. Just look at how he lays down those strokes, building up layers of color, like he’s wrestling with the paint. It feels like he was really IN the act of seeing, responding, you know? I can imagine him stepping back, squinting, and then diving back in to add another dab of pink to those peonies, or deepen the shadows under the vase. The way he captures the light reflecting off the glass is pretty special. I bet Puzyrkov was looking at Impressionists like Manet - this feels like their work, and their peers', exploration of color and light. It reminds me that painting is about so much more than just representation, it's about that exchange, that conversation between painters across time. We're all trying to figure out how to make sense of the world, one brushstroke at a time.