Portrait 1985

This heavily impastoed portrait of a figure was realized with oil on canvas by Oleg Holosiy. Look at the greens, browns, blues, and reds that Holosiy used to build this mass of an individual. I can imagine him, standing there in his studio, building this figure up out of pure intuition. The paint is so thick and the brushstrokes so physical. The surface is heavily textured, catching the light and creating its own kind of dance. Holosiy seems to almost sculpt the features onto the canvas with dark and light tones of paint to capture some essence of humanity. This portrait reminds me of other painters like Auerbach and Kossoff, painters deeply engaged in the material possibilities of paint. Artists are constantly in dialogue, conversing through the language of paint, and pushing each other to see and feel in new ways. Each brushstroke a question, a statement, a feeling, inviting us to participate in a dynamic conversation.