Still Life with Apples (Food) 1985

This is Horia Bernea’s ‘Still Life with Apples’, painted in 1985. The muted palette and scumbled brushstrokes give the painting a kind of ghostly presence, like a half-remembered dream. I can imagine Bernea in his studio, totally absorbed, circling around those apples, trying to capture not just their appearance, but some essential truth about them. Think about how the texture of the paint mimics the rough skin of the fruit and the grainy surface beneath. The apple on the left is so pale it almost blends into the gloom, while the one in the middle has this bruised spot, a little flash of raw sienna that hints at decay, maybe even mortality. I am reminded of Cezanne's obsession with apples, or Chardin's quiet, contemplative still lifes. Artists keep returning to these simple subjects, finding endless possibilities for expression. Painting becomes a way of seeing, thinking, and feeling, a conversation across time and space.