Two figures walk away from us through a stand of slender birch trees, the trunks painted in flecked lilac and silver rather than plain white. One wears a long red dress, the other a blue dress and a straw hat, and they carry baskets as they move between the trees. Sunlight falls in long diagonal shadows across the green grass, and the far end of the wood dissolves into pale haze. Once Upon a Time is an oil on canvas from 2022, square at 100 by 100 centimetres, the surface built up by Dima Dmitriev in small, busy dabs of colour.