Painting At the Market, artist Volodymyr Nosan

• Artist: Volodymyr Nosan
• Title: "At the Market"
• Year: 2024
• Size: 120 × 80 cm
• Materials: oil on canvas
• Original hand-painted artwork

"At the Market" is a horizontal genre scene with many figures. In the foreground is a market stall laden with baskets of eggs, tomatoes, onions, garlic and white marrows. Behind the stall, a vendor holds out a ripe tomato to a customer, while on the right a woman with a wicker bag stands with her head thoughtfully bowed over the goods. On the left are another market woman and a man carrying a crate above his head. The background is filled with pale houses with tiled roofs climbing up a hillside — a small town living its unhurried market life.

The work is painted in oils in the artist's recognisable manner, where painting is closely intertwined with drawing. The figures are generalised and built from large, clear silhouettes, and the forms are worked with energetic lines and hatching reminiscent of charcoal or pastel drawing. Dense brushstrokes sit alongside scratched and rubbed areas through which the lower layers of paint show, giving the surface of the canvas a lively texture. The composition is conceived as a rhythmic sequence of figures and objects that leads the eye from the stall to the customers and on to the houses on the hill.

The palette is built on warm ochre, terracotta and brown tones that unite the people, objects and architecture into a single harmony. Against this background stand out the juicy red accents of the tomatoes and cool white-and-blue reflections on the walls of the houses and on the clothing. The restrained, almost monochrome palette evokes a sunny midday and a calm, lived-in world in which an everyday scene takes on special significance.

Volodymyr Nosan is a Ukrainian painter, graphic artist and teacher, Honoured Worker of Arts of Ukraine, member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine and a representative of the Kharkiv art school. People and the land, traditional ways of life and everyday existence hold an important place in his work; his artistic language is distinguished by generalised form, carefully considered composition, an expressive rhythm of silhouettes and decorative use of colour.

The large horizontal format of 120 × 80 cm allows the painting to become the focal point of a living room, dining room, study or hallway. Its warm palette pairs well with wood, natural stone and interiors in calm natural tones. The work will make a fine gift for a lover of Ukrainian painting, a manager or a business partner.