Just as Rembrandt’s “Titus at his Desk” keeps reading and daydreaming, reading again and dreaming further in the continuous present tense, so Natalya Zaloznaya’s girl with a fork eats and enjoys, eats and enjoys in the grammatical form of Present Continuous – in a continuously continuing action.
The painting “With a Fork”, in my opinion, is the artistic peak of the Delight series, in which the author’s concept, with a bit of luck, is happily combined with brilliant expressive execution.
With what luck?! Because the artist experimented with the latest material – fluid acrylic ink, which, even with masterful application, flows where it wants to. But probably because of this, the movement of the girl’s face is so disarming and makes you remember the old word – savoring…
Yeah, but what does Rembrandt and his son have to do with it? Master Natalya Zaloznaya will probably be surprised by my association.
But wait! What about her series My Dutch Heroes: Vermeer, Van Gogh and Rembrandt, which Natalya commented on as follows: “regarding the light… I only remember that my idea was this – Van Gogh is an artist of sunlight, Vermeer – of daylight, Rembrandt – of spiritual light. But this is very monosyllabic, and maybe in this brevity there is a reason for reflection…”
In both canvases, with their frontal composition, lighting, dark background, hands and even sizes, a precious moment of self-contemplation is conveyed. A rarity, in our time, to look inside oneself and be surprised that there is life there, you just need to stop scrolling through Instagram.