American kid's dream 2020

Yulia Mamontova painted “American kid's dream,” with oil on canvas in a size of 40 by 30 cm, and it’s pretty dreamy. The paint is troweled on in thick strokes. The first thing you notice is the texture, built up with the palette knife, not a brush. There’s a wonderful tension between the gold that flashes through the painting and the figures. It's like the artist built the painting with a heavy impasto, then added the gold leaf afterward, almost like a guilty pleasure. Look at the way the light catches the edges of each stroke, building up the scene. There is something about the stiffness of the boys, the boat they carry together, and the application of paint. They feel stiff, yet they are on the edge of a dreamscape. It makes me think of Gustave Courbet who painted as he saw; so did Mamontova. It’s a great way to approach painting.