Spring morning in Baku 1959

This big painting by Sattar Bahlulzade hums with a soft energy, you can see it’s been built up with layers of oil paint, one mark informing the next. Imagine Bahlulzade, brush in hand, capturing a spring morning in Baku, the sky and sea a soft blue haze. He must have been responding to a feeling. I wonder if he planned to make the brushstrokes so visible? See how the dabs and flicks of paint build the forms, like the flowers bursting forth with life, echoing other painters like Bonnard. I feel that he was also looking at earlier traditions of landscape painting. And those birds! Some are resting peacefully on the rooftops while others have taken to the sky. There’s a real sense of freedom in the way they move and the artist paints. Isn't it curious how one painter's gesture can inspire another across time? Painting at its best isn’t about answers, but opening up spaces for us to dream, to see, and to feel.