Icon painting motifs 1912

Natalia Goncharova made this painting, titled ‘Icon painting motifs’, with oil on canvas and you can really feel that sense of building up the image, one layer at a time. It’s got this brilliant mix of colors, earthy tones alongside vivid blues, reds and yellows. The paint is applied in these deliberate, visible strokes, so you can see the artist's hand in the work, like you're watching the thought process unfold, a decision being made right there on the canvas. I love how she breaks up the canvas into these little squares, each one a mini-world, a self-contained scene with a life of its own. Take the bottom center square, the tree with the nest, for example, a world within a world. It reminds me of Hilma af Klint, another artist who was exploring spiritual themes with a totally unique visual language. Art is just an ongoing conversation, isn't it, different voices speaking across time.