Sheep Shearing 1907

Natalia Goncharova’s “Sheep Shearing,” now residing in Serpukhov, Russia, is a vibrant oil painting, full of rural energy. I can imagine her standing there, brush in hand, watching the sheep, the children, the light, and trying to get it all down in these thick strokes. Look at how the colors push against each other—the blues of the sky fighting with the golden field. And then those figures, so solid, so present, doing their work. It's a dance between representation and something else. Goncharova is not just copying reality, she's wrestling with it, shaping it into something that feels alive, full of feeling. The way she handles paint, thick and gestural, reminds me of some of my own struggles in the studio, that push and pull between intention and accident, control and letting go. Each brushstroke feels like a decision, a risk, a little act of defiance against the blank canvas. I think that is what painting is all about, trying something new and different, and carrying on a conversation with the other artists of the past.