Rome. Trajan's Forum 1977

Tetyana Yablonska made this painting of Rome’s Trajan's Forum with visible, separate strokes of paint. You can almost see Yablonska dabbing at the canvas, watching the columns and buildings take form, bit by bit. The colors seem to vibrate between warm oranges and cool blues, and the building in the background seems to glow from within. I can imagine her, squinting in the Roman sun, trying to capture the light as it bounces off the ancient stones. The columns in the foreground almost look like they’re breathing, with their chunky, textured surfaces. It’s like she’s not just painting a place but feeling it, letting her hand and eye work together to find a new way of seeing something so old. Her painting makes me think of other artists like Pierre Bonnard, who also used color and light to create such atmospheric, immersive scenes. There's this ongoing conversation between painters that lasts for centuries. Each artist picks up the brush and adds their own voice to the story.