Painting Peonies, artist Yegor Dulin

• Artist: Yegor Dulin
• Title: "Peonies"
• Year: 2026
• Size: 60 × 80 cm
• Materials: oil on stretched canvas
• Original hand-painted artwork

"Peonies" is a lush floral composition on a vertical canvas. The lower and middle parts are filled with a dense mass of flowers: four large white peonies with creamy centres alternate with crimson-lilac ones, round buds hide between them, and a red flower flares up in the lower left corner. Above this mass rise orange lilies — an open star-shaped flower and several elongated, pointed buds — while on the right lilac peonies on tall stems reach towards the sky. The background at the top is a light, almost white sky with a pinkish tinge, against which the silhouettes of stems and buds read clearly. The composition moves from the heavy, saturated mass of flowers below to a light, airy top.

Texture is the main means of expression here. The white petals are sculpted from thick slabs of paint, the palette knife leaves folds and ridges on them, and the flowers literally stand out from the surface of the canvas. The crimson peonies are painted with smaller, broken strokes through which red and pink show. The foliage consists of energetic palette-knife strokes in green, turquoise and blue with touches of ochre, conveying the pace of plein-air work. The signature "Yehor Dulin" is in the lower right corner.

The palette is bright and festive: milky white, crimson, lilac and orange against deep emerald-turquoise greenery. Delicate yellow, orange and pink shades hide in the white flowers, making them look warm and lit from within. The light background at the top creates a feeling of morning air and space. The painting conveys the generosity of early summer, when peonies and lilies bloom in the garden at the same time and the air is full of their scent. The warm orange lilies echo the ochre in the foliage and tie the top and bottom of the painting together.

Yegor Dulin is the winner of the "Best Artist 2019" competition at the international art plein-air contest in Vinnytsia and has been awarded the "For Service to Art" medal of the National Union of Artists. In 2019 he also took part in the all-Ukrainian project "Picturesque Ukraine" in Kropyvnytskyi, which brought together works by about 300 of the country's artists.

The vertical 60 × 80 cm format suits a living room, dining room or bedroom well: the painting will find its place above a chest of drawers, a sofa or the head of a bed. The bright flowers will enliven a light interior: in a classic space they add opulence, in a modern one they become the main colour accent. "Peonies" is a classic gift for a woman for a birthday, an anniversary or a spring holiday, and a painting for anyone who wants flowers at home that never fade.