Painting Water Lilies, artist Yegor Dulin

• Artist: Yegor Dulin
• Title: "Water Lilies"
• Year: 2025
• Size: 100 × 60 cm
• Materials: oil on canvas; shipped rolled in a tube, unstretched
• Original hand-painted artwork

The horizontal canvas "Water Lilies" shows the surface of a pond in close-up, with no bank or horizon. Almost the entire space is taken up by flat round lily pads in pale green, mint and bluish tones that stretch in a chain across the centre of the painting from left to right. Among them three white flowers with warm yellow centres have opened, with small flecks of orange flickering nearby. In the upper left corner the water reflects a pale blue sky and thin branches, while on the right and at the top lies dark, almost black-green water with vertical reflections of the greenery on the bank. Below, apart from the others, floats a large heart-shaped pad that closes the composition.

The work is painted freely and broadly in a plein-air manner: the pads are laid in with dense brush and palette-knife strokes, in places the paint goes on in impasto, and the vertical reflections in the dark water are rendered with long drips and strokes. The artist does not draw every detail; form is assembled from patches of colour and light, the way it looks when you gaze at water on a sunny day. Depth comes from shifts of tone, so the light pads seem to hover above the dark depth. The artist's signature is not visible in the available photographs.

The palette is cool and calm: emerald and bottle-green tones, turquoise, the blue sky in the reflection and pale mint and lime-green pads. The white flowers and drops of orange provide small warm accents. The mood is contemplative and unhurried: the painting conveys the stillness of a summer pond, the coolness of the water and soft daylight in which you want to pause and slow down.

Yegor Dulin has worked en plein air for many years: he took part in the international plein-air "Italy 2019" and in the national project "Picturesque Ukraine 2019". In 2025 his "Marine" series won the top nomination and was published in the London newspaper The Times, and in 2024 his painting "Alps" appeared in the film "12" by Warner Bros.

The 100 × 60 cm size and elongated format make the canvas a striking centrepiece for a wall in a spacious living room, study, meeting room or bedroom, for example above a sofa, a bed or a long sideboard. The green and turquoise palette goes well with natural wood, linen, grey and white walls, and brings a sense of freshness to the room. The painting is shipped rolled in a tube, unstretched, so before hanging it needs to be stretched on a frame or framed. It is a good gift for a partner or manager, and for any man or woman who appreciates calm landscape painting.