Oleg Prokofiev: Coloured Paintings From the 1990's

Oleg Prokofiev Coloured works from the 1990’s

Oleg Prokofiev The sketchbooks from 1997/1998 are filled with lively people scratching or stretching, smoking and reading, yawning and dreaming. The fluid lines of Prokofiev’s previous figures are not faceless anymore, but take on real human expression. No longer floating helplessly around, they are very much grounded; their outlines do not overlap but form moving lips, messy hair, and crumpled shirts. Black ink lines depict seagulls and traffic cones, the narrowly winding Cornish streets, and the people that pepper the beach all the way down to the shore.

Prokofiev’s initial connection to Cornwall linked back to the Gray’s Helen Sutherland art collection. Bright with light, these paintings exhibit a playfulness and mnemonic quality. Sprawled in the sun or swimming in circles in the treacly sea, a collection of sleepy wanderers have found themselves at the world’s end. These are dozy hazy barbecue evenings, where hair is shaken loose and takes on the sunset. Gold coins spill over heads and scatter through the water. The colours are euphoric, fiercely atmospheric wistful. The golden hourglass sands meet fuzzy felt skies; painted fishing boats drift out on endless shores.

Sunburnt and breezy, the children chase their pointy faced dogs along the beach.

As though waking up and seeing colour for the first time, there is an ease to the artist’s later technique, a lazy meandering of brushes and contentment in leaving things unfinished. Waylaid by sea creatures that recede and advance with the tides, the sun is blooming, dropping its petals in the blistering heat. The velvet dunes are combed with driftwood fires and seagulls land, fluttering like clean laundry. These are old postcards, meditative, fading, places where shell seekers follow the shadows like sun dials.

Portrait Of Sculpture 1 Oil on board, 61 x 54 cm 1992

Painting Of Sculpture Vll Oil on board, 56 x 76 cm, 1992

Multicoloured Sculpture Oil on board, 59 x 84 cm, 1992

Interior (At The Table) Oil on canvas, 63 x 63 cm 1994

Deep Garden Oil on canvas, 91 x 76 cm 1995

Carnival Oil on canvas, 137 x 81 cm 1995

Fireworks Oil on canvas , 100 x 81 cm 1995

Green Orb Oil on wood, 43 x 66 cm, 1995

Figure In A Wood (Spring) Oil on wood, 87 x 44 cm 1995

Figure In A wood (Autumn) Oil on wood, 87 x 44 cm 1995

Odyssey Oil on canvas, 183 x 142 cm 1995

Conflagration Oil on canvas, 73 x 100 cm, 1995

Interior (Cat On Chair) Oil on canvas, 76 x 61 cm 1995

Blue Landscape Acrylic on canvas, 82 x 101 cm, 1995

Garden Studio Acrylic on canvas, 106 x 81 cm 1996

To The Arch Acrylic on canvas, 76 x 101 cm, 1996

Configuration (Pink/Blue/Green) Acrylic on canvas, 61 x 51 cm 1996

Configuration (Aubergine) Acrylic on canvas, 76 x 61 cm 1996

ORB – Dark Interior Acrylic on canvas, 92 x 76 cm 1996

Eclipse Acrylic on canvas, 63 x 47 cm 1996

Red Interior Acrylic on canvas, 69 x 76 cm, 1996

Boy Between Screens Acrylic on canvas, 71 x 71 cm 1996

The Duet Acrylic on canvas, 86 x 72 cm 1996

At The Table Acrylic on canvas, 96 x 71 cm 1996

A Secret Wedding Acrylic on canvas, 76 x 97 cm, 1996

The Candle Acrylic on canvas, 66 x 92 cm, 1997

Hay Hill Gallery 35 Baker Street London W1U 8EN T: +44 (0) 20 7486 6006 F: +44 (0) 70 5362 1735 www.hayhillgallery.com E: info@hayhillgallery.com