Original artwork description:

Old Family Picture (2023) by Zakhar Shevchuk is a poignant and expressive oil painting measuring 155x110 cm. It belongs to a series inspired by the artist’s discovery of old family photographs at his grandparents’ home – images that were blurry, discolored, and sometimes unrecognizable. But it was precisely those “damaged” photos that caught his imagination. What if the distortions tell us more than the clear images ever could?

In this piece, three figures emerge from a painterly fog. The adult faces are smudged and nearly erased, while the child’s downcast expression is softly defined but still ghostlike. Dripping brushwork and atmospheric color suggest the organic wear of time – like a Polaroid left in the sun, or a moment viewed through tears. Shades of green, pale blue, blush pink, and ochre blend into one another, reinforcing the dreamlike or memory-like state.

This is a painting about emotional archaeology: what we keep, what fades, and what returns unexpectedly in broken form. It is a deeply human work that will resonate with collectors who appreciate psychologically charged figurative abstraction.

Materials used:

Oil

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