Purple road 1962

Yuriy Khymych made this gouache, Purple Road, sometime during his lifetime of 1928 to 2003. I imagine him outside, in a town like this, balancing his board on his knees. He has to decide what to put in and what to leave out; what to emphasise and what to tone down. The painting is so declarative, using flat planes of colour, it's more about shape than blending. The blue-violet of the sky and road really sings against the sienna rooftops. I can almost hear them sizzling in the sun. Khymych pushes the colour to create a kind of emotional flattening; a place to rest, where the world takes on a slower pace. In the foreground, there are two figures, little blips of humanity. I feel the artist sees them, but he might also see himself, too. When I look at this painting, I see how artists are constantly drawing from the world around them, pulling and pushing, until a new vision emerges.