Dead Nature or Great Summer Anticipation?

“Lilacs in May”, nature morte by Berenika Drażewska

Credit: photo by Luda Zueva “Lilacs in May” by Berenika Drażewska , soft pastels on abrasive paper, German Center Art Gallery, SG

Nature morte — or still life — literally means “dead nature.” If you think about it for a moment, it is true: those beautiful flowers are already dying. In just a few days, the bloom will disappear. And in a sense, there is a second death when the artist places the flowers on canvas, freezing them in time.

Yet I believe the intention of flower still lifes is quite the opposite. Flower arrangements, especially the rough, self-picked ones, carry emotions and memories into the home. In good still lifes, flowers become something like a portal between times and places. The flowers depicted hold meaning not only for the artist but also for the viewers.

Lilacs, for me, carry a particularly rich cultural context of my home city. In Moscow, they bloom in late May, and there were those magical moments when you are still half asleep and leave for school early in the morning, and a light breeze suddenly brings their scent. Sweet, slightly woody, with a faint hint of citrus — you instantly know that lilac season has arrived.

The dominant color is purple. Of course, there are white lilacs, but purple is the color that first comes to mind. Another curious thing — you almost never buy lilacs. They are usually a gift — but the giver probably didn’t buy them either. More often, the branches were broken off somewhere in a neighborhood public garden.

And lilacs are rarely placed in a fancy vase. They usually end up in a simple jar near an open window, because warm weather has just begun and everyone wants the windows open. By the end of May, the smell of lilacs becomes inseparable from the anticipation of summer. In climates where spring, autumn, and winter can feel uncertain and not so pleasant, people often say that summer is a “little life.” The blooming lilacs mark the beginning of that annual journey.

There was also the childhood ritual of searching for the rare four-petal lilac flower, said to bring luck. Finding one always felt possible — and it only strengthened the sense of joyful anticipation that summer was approaching.

Imagine how intense these feelings become when you are graduating from high school. One of those late May days was my final exams and the prom. There wasn’t really a strict tradition of a boy bringing a corsage, but the public gardens solved the matter naturally: lilacs appeared everywhere. I’m not sure how it works today, but around the time of my sweet eighteen, this was exactly how it was.

And what do you anticipate at that age? Adventure. Hope. The beginning of life. Lilacs set the romantic mood — long walks holding hands, a shy kiss, and that bittersweet longing that appears right after you part. The entire lilac atmosphere carries a feeling of simplicity and authenticity, the quiet excitement of young love along wide city streets.

I briefly spoke with Berenika Drażewska while standing next to this beautiful painting of lilacs at the exhibition where we met. Since we come from a similar climate zone, many of these associations resonated naturally. But what I think the artist captures so beautifully is the elusive quality of that purple color and the special late-spring light — when the sun is already bright, but the air is still cool.

It is the kind of moment when all you want to do is stand in your underwear by the open window, breathing in the scent of lilacs and feeling that summer is just about to begin.

I don’t feel qualified to analyze painting technique in detail, but even to an untrained eye, it is clear that the artist moves confidently between delicate precision in texture and a mastery of light, shadow, and depth. Yet when I look at this painting, I find that I don’t want to think about technique at all. I simply want to observe the composition and watch how the purples gradually soften and fade.

To me, this painting is ultimately about the anticipation of summer — hopeful, romantic, and quietly optimistic.

More about the exhibition https://www.instagram.com/p/DVYNRpUk7Xr/

Singapore, March 2026