Painting Peony Bouquet, artist Yegor Dulin

• Artist: Yegor Dulin
• Title: "Peony Bouquet"
• Year: 2026
• Size: 80 × 80 cm
• Materials: oil on stretched canvas
• Original hand-painted artwork

At the centre of this square canvas is a lush bouquet of peonies in a plain drinking glass standing on a white tablecloth. Large white-pink and lilac blooms spread across almost the full width of the canvas, with dark green leaves and sharp stems breaking through between them. On the left of the table sits an ochre bowl heaped with ripe cherries; on the right lies a single yellow lemon. Behind the table runs a strip of blue, perhaps the edge of a cloth or a distant plane, while the upper part of the painting is filled with a juicy green background against which the flowers read especially bright. The composition rests on a simple triangle: the bouquet above, with the cherries and the lemon below balancing each other on either side of the glass.

The painting is thick and impasto: the peony petals are modelled with broad palette-knife strokes, each laid down as a separate facet, giving the surface a relief, almost sculptural texture. Leaves and stems are drawn with quick, energetic brush movements, and the glass is rendered in a few translucent planes of green and blue. The tablecloth is built from short light slabs of paint veined with yellow, lilac and blue; reflections and shadows are not spelled out but suggested through colour. It is the lively, free manner of a plein-air painter carried over into still life. The artist's signature in Latin letters is visible in the lower left corner.

The palette is built on the contrast between the fresh green background and the cool white of the table, with the pink, lilac and peach tones of the petals ringing out between them. Dark red cherries and a lemon-yellow accent add warm notes and keep the picture from becoming too sweet. The light is even and diurnal, as by an open window in early summer when peonies have just been cut in the garden. The mood is festive and homely at once: you can almost sense the scent of the flowers, the coolness of the water in the glass and an unhurried summer noon.

The work is by Yegor Dulin, a Ukrainian painter and a member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine since 2010. He went through a multi-stage academic training: an art school, a college of culture and arts, an institute of culture and arts specialising in easel painting, the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts and a master's degree from H. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University (2011). His paintings are held in private collections in Ukraine, Australia, the USA, the UK, France, the Netherlands and Canada.

At 80 × 80 cm the format is noticeable without being bulky: the painting will become the focal point of a wall in a living room or dining room and looks good above a chest of drawers, a dining table or a sofa. The light palette with green and pink sits easily with Scandinavian, classic and contemporary interiors and will also brighten a spacious kitchen or bedroom. "Peony Bouquet" is a warm gift for a woman for a birthday, an anniversary or a housewarming, and a fine present for a colleague or business partner who appreciates genuine hand-painted art.