Landscape 1970

This landscape was painted by Hryhorii Havrylenko, but when exactly, we don’t know. Look at the way he's layered the greens, almost scribbling them on, one after another. It's like he's trying to catch the feeling of being surrounded by trees rather than just painting what they look like. The physicality of the paint is really present here. You can see the strokes, how he mixed the colors right on the canvas, especially in the darker parts of the treeline. It's not blended smooth, and that roughness gives it life. It’s less about perfection, and more about the gesture. See that patch of darker green, almost blue, nestled among the lighter greens? It’s like a little secret, a shadow maybe, that pulls the whole thing together. It reminds me a little of Fairfield Porter's landscapes, that same interest in capturing a sense of place through simple, direct marks. But Havrylenko has his own voice, a bit wilder, maybe? A reminder that painting is, at its best, an ongoing conversation.