The study of reality through the prism of Bilous visual solution is impossible without the theme of horses. These creatures are freedom-loving, noble, beautiful. They are a concentrated movement that the artist conveys with dynamic colors. The project was created before the full-scale stage of Russia's war against Ukraine, and the current struggle of Ukrainians for freedom has added a new meaning to it.

 

Mykola Bilous takes all of his stories from real life. Horses are a tribute to the childhood spent in the Kyiv region near animal husbandry. The children rode on the local working horses without saddles, you cling to the mane - and go. In the new series, these horses became more lyrical, as if from the Ukrainian folk song "Oh, whose horse is standing here", which gave the name to the project. On the one hand, there is a tough dynamic, the horse is the same brother of the Cossack who helps him win. But moments of communication with a horse are full of tenderness, even love. A horse is a friend, not a pet. An important image is "The Fall": we see only an impersonal fragment, and this can be read as a story of liberation.

 

Mykola Bilous remains faithful to his own unique method of painting. In the works, the air is painted in black, and this color is fundamentally absent in the main composition. The colors are open, without halftones, but everything is wrapped in a translucent "base tone" (a mixture of three primary colors - red, blue and yellow). It seems, that the characters stand on the theater stage. Or maybe it's a memory spotlight picking up images from the past? "As soon as the sun rises, love will leave", - these words end the song "Oh, whose horse is standing here". Mykola Bilous's love for art and life in general is so great that we do not attempt to measure it in horsepower.