Pancake Tuesday (Maslenitsa) 1914

Pavel Filonov made this painting ‘Pancake Tuesday (Maslenitsa)’ with oil on canvas. Oh, this painting looks like it took a long time! I imagine him layering and layering. The act of painting itself—how it’s come into being, shifting and emerging through trial, error, and intuition. I can see him making a stroke and then waiting for it to dry. What might he have been thinking when he made it? I wonder if he was thinking of the people. I like the impasto look of the paint, it seems thick here. These colours shape my experience of the painting and contribute to the emotional resonance of the work. Filonov had a cool way of working, his paintings are unique. Artists are always in an ongoing conversation, inspiring one another’s creativity. Painting is this embodied expression which allows for multiple interpretations.