Original artwork description:

Childhood Dreams (2024, oil on canvas, 150x110 cm) by Zakhar Shevchuk addresses the fragile and fleeting nature of childhood aspirations. A child stands at the center of the canvas, their serious face contrasting with the luminous bubbles and balloon-like shapes drifting around them.

Painted in delicate layers of blue, turquoise, and pastel tones, the bubbles appear radiant and beautiful, yet carry a symbolic fragility. Their short-lived presence reflects the transience of childhood hopes, easily lost or reshaped by life’s progression.

The child’s solemn presence anchors the painting. This emotional contrast – between playful imagery and contemplative seriousness – creates a psychological depth that is central to Shevchuk’s work. The semi-abstract background, filled with shifting textures and layered paint, enhances the dreamlike quality of the composition. Like memory itself, the space is fluid and unstable, constantly in flux.

Large in scale and immersive in presence, Childhood Dreams is a painting that speaks directly to both personal experience and universal themes of growth and transformation.

Materials used:

Oil

Tags: