Garden 2001

Constantin Flondor made this painting of a garden, probably working outside. The light and air of the garden are everywhere in the paint, dissolving all the forms. Flondor's brushstrokes are like little dabs and flicks, they feel so immediate. Up close you can really see how much variety there is in the surface. There’s pinks and blues in the trunks of the trees, reflecting the light in the sky. These aren’t just brown tree trunks, they are alive. Look at the way he's painted that wooden trellis at the top of the painting, it looks like a puzzle, you almost can't work out how the structure fits together, it's like everything in the painting is vibrating. I am reminded of Pierre Bonnard’s paintings of his garden, where he used colour to create a sense of atmosphere and light. But whereas Bonnard is quite controlled, Flondor seems to be letting his feelings about the garden take over. For Flondor, painting is a way of understanding the world through feeling, rather than through observation.