olechko

18×24 cm, oil on board, 2008 Please send your bid by email if you want to purchase this painting.

Four men gathered for a chat by their neighbor’s, standing outside his yard where he stored hay perched up by logs and covered with a sheet of plastic. The village life is pretty slow on Sunday.. From the impressions on the trip around Volyn countryside in February.

A new top notch Ukrainian artist that I have discovered for myself: Illiya Isupov.

Got to check out Ekaterina  Kosyanenko at Kyiv Museum of Russian Artand the RA gallery art school show before it closes on March 3rd   (also pop into KievFineArt and Maysternya nearby).

It got warm enough to go outside today for a quick sketch directly in oil. The result is pretty shaky (still just 4C above zero here). It’s my parents’ back yard - complete with nationalistically painted bee hives and the power plant at the back - yuck. It’s environmentally clean, and papa gets organically certified honey from these bees, if you can believe it.

15×15 cm, oil on board, 2008, nfs

Discovered a fantastic set of Soviet posters on women’s theme on artpages .

15×15 sm, oil on board, 2008
This is one of the impressions from yesterday’s day trip the old wooden one, and a new built right next to  it.  The view on both of them is spectacular as you are coming back from Derman’ over the hill and down very steep descent into the valley. I can only imagine what it will look like when the greenery appears.

We visited three different monasteries in Volyn region today.

The roads leading to the places are bad, lack signs and general depressive ruin of the countryside surrounds everything. Preferred means of transport there are horse-driven carriages. During the summer nature hides all this in much more attractive greenery.

Derman’ dates back XV-XVII century and hosts a lovely woman’s monastery, two churches, a holy well, with ancient row and mot around it. Besides the monastery, an old school, that produced Ulas Samchuk- renowned writer and journalist.

Horodok outside of Rivne sits on an island, old Ukrainian baroque church dates back 1740. The new monastery cathedral has fantastic new wooden decor inside and the warm” church” has a great private feel to it.

Biliv is the youngest women’s monastery of the three, from 1972, owns a fantastic wooden church, and is the hardest to get to.

On the way back we ate at an established inn called Sophia, outside of Rivne. The kinds of place where the local newlyweds come for their photo shoots complete with pretty exotic garden, tennis courts, hotel, solid restaurant and even a recently added live music venue.

I got a call from Olesya Domaradzska at Green Sofa (Zelena Canapa) gallery in Lviv to let me know that a new piece by this young artist that we liked arrived at her gallery today. Over holidays we really liked to get her Christmas tree candle holder, but now she came up with an adorable angel candle holder instead. If any of you swing by the Green Sofa on Virmenska st. in Lviv, it can be yours for $50.

Interesting article on the general state of Ukrainian art market by Kyiv Weekly.

My upcoming exhibit full page ad for the IWCK newsletter. Still work in progress.

15 x 15 cm, oil on board, 2008, private collection

I painted these two to teach the little one about the seasons. He seems to pay little attention to the fact so far…

15 x 15 cm, oil on board, 2008, private collection

The other day we were returning home for a late dinner at a pub and had to get some cash at an ATM, which happened to be right next to this cafe window. Thanks to this, I was able to get a glimpse of devushkas off their guard, just relaxing under a flattering warm light, sharing their stories, strategising for the next day…

Thanks to Jan Verhulst I learned of “pochade”, a French term for a small, roughly executed oil sketch. There happens to be a Pochades flickr group displaying just these.  Just my cup of tea!

15 x 15 cm, oil on board, 2008, private collection

David’s been working hard at home this week, his only outlet was taking some tea, and that was still at his desk - you can see our two laptops in the background here.  Btw, I’ve painted this rooster pot before, it’s my mom’s prize item in her china collection. The cups come from different service and yet perfectly match the teapot in a shabby chic kind of way, but of course it’s just about the tea for poor overworked David.  He always brings some variety from his regular London trips, this one was the Harrods kind from the duty free store. Tastes surprisingly good and justifies it’s 10 quid per can price tag.

15×15 cm, oil on board, 2008, private collection
This is a view from my parent’s new house window. Since it’s a new development, part of the land is still being used for potato while other plots are built up with million-dollar mansions. Thirteen years later after starting with this house, we are still using dirt road to get here.

Check out two more funky Ukrainian illustrator artists on flickr: Sheplusleo and Taz_coma

15×15 cm, oil on board, 2008, private collection

As pepole were coming from the service, the winter night was settling in, I peeked though the main gate at the church to see this perfectly framed picture. The architecture of the place is typicall Ukrainian Baroque with a  hint of Renaissance.