Turkey with the family 1936

Pyotr Konchalovsky made this painting of a turkey and their family with oils, although I don't know when. Look at the surface, Konchalovsky seems to be using a dry brush technique here, right? You can really see the marks, and it gives the impression that the piece was painted quickly and intuitively. The palette is quite muted, you see these earth tones of brown and ochre, but then there's this pop of bright red on the turkey’s wattle. Look at the way the light hits the chicks, they’re rendered with these soft, feathery strokes that give them a real sense of volume. The texture of the mother turkey’s feathers, created with short, overlapping strokes, is also quite interesting. I think this connects to the way that Cezanne used marks to build form. Painting turkeys is a humble, folksy sort of act, and I think it shows. Ultimately, I think the beauty of this piece lies in the way that Konchalovsky embraces the ambiguities inherent in artmaking, and lets us come along for the ride.