Still life "Flowers, apples, tomatoes" 1950

Kateryna Bilokur made this still life of flowers, apples, and tomatoes without any formal training. She used oil paint and a very fine brush. Just look at the surface of the painting. I can almost imagine her there, patiently building up the image with tiny touches of colour, pushing paint around, adding layer upon layer, detail upon detail. Her work is so meticulous, almost obsessive. I can see her, so determined, trying to capture the exact essence of the natural world around her. She’s really going for it, like a folk art Van Gogh, not afraid to let the colours sing. But what makes her work special is the way she combines this intensity with a kind of naive charm, her work reminds us of the beauty of simple things. Painting is such a personal thing, right? It's like an ongoing conversation between artists across time, inspiring one another's creativity. Bilokur's work is really its own thing, but when I look at it I think of other self-taught artists. They embrace ambiguity and uncertainty. And their art allows for multiple interpretations rather than fixed meanings.