In Latvian painting Edvins Kalnenieks (b.1939) is justifiably considered foremost in pastel painting. In his works depicting human labour, emotions or life cycle including childhood, youth and maturity, man’s presence can always be perceived. Kalnenieks’ paintings of the lives of farmers reveal his own attitudes, making us believe that the greatest value is man and his land, his attachment to the land and the feeling for his Latvian roots. Unmistakably Latvian fields and people are recognized in his paintings, but they are not of the present. They are of the past, more or less remote, but timeless. There is permanence in the beauty of nature, man’s labour and his love of the land. Pastel is the most suitable medium for the treatment of this subject because it is like a vision or a dream and the memories of the experienced beauty develop a great reverence to it. Although all components, be they colour, light, space or texture are of equal importance in Edvins Kalnenieks’ painting, the artist manages to combine them in the unified harmonious polyphony.