olechko

Happy to get back to painting oils after a week of basking in the sun. Did some nice watercolors while on vacation as well actually. About this painting: absolutely loved the plush old school leather chairs and ancient wooden beams at this inn in Rye. As soon as I sat down there, immediately started fantasising about having a beautiful library of my own, full of dusty books, dotted with green lamps and old leather chairs.

It’s been several months since I visited Roma and promised my friend Giuliana to turn some of my sketches of her into a painting but got around to it just now, particularly thanks to my fascination with the cool new medium for my oil paintings I’ve been posting about here in the past week.

oil on p.v.c. 30×21 cm, 2010, commission

Today have been staying in and working on my interiors – really enjoyed yesterday’s oranges and purples in the NHI interior, having another take.

oil on p.v.c., 21×30 cm (A4 size)

listed on Etsy

Took the kid(s) to the Natural History Museum to see the dinosaurs. Had a coffee and cakes in the hall, stood in a long line to see the T-Rex and checked out the oldest tree stump. It’s amazing what beautiful things the architects used to build not so long ago. Can hardly say that about anything that has been put up in the past 60 years…

aprox 21×30 cm oil painting, 2010

listed on Etsy

Reportedly this guy makes the best flat white in London. He is at Broadway market on Saturdays and Whitecross market by Barbican some other days. My friend said you can tell him by the long line next to it and surely enough it was worth the wait. On Broadway market he is usually in the middle of the street next to the flower stall.

oil on panel,6×6 in, 2010, sold

Meant to post about this new barrette I got at Sunday Up Market in Spitalfields – from the small crafty brother and sister run business. They do really amazing work, mine’s got vintage brooch, and  speckled feathers, it goes with nearly anything I have in my wardrobe. Mr. Uzzband thinks it’s a bit silly.

mixed media on paper, 2010, for sale on Etsy

I am messing around with watercolors again, to get my hand looser and more spontaneous on my large scale paintings, plus there has been awfully few girls in my work recently, so here’s the catch up; and here’s another one.

6×8 in,  2010,  listed on Etsy

Inspired by Sartorialist. This is about the first time I drew from a reference photo that I did not take myself or have not been asked to use by the photographer. I recently did some work that had to involve some partial use of borrowed material and then around the same time I saw a show about Picasso and how he boldly used old master paintings as reference. The legal rule of thumb I’ve heard is if art created off someone else’s creative property, it’s got to be altered enough to be it’s own thing. To me it’s also about  how close  the used image is to what I am trying to express, so the photos I took, and, therefore are my personal expressions, translate into more successful and complete painting. What thoughts do you have on this point?

Finally got around to producing a little neat book – portfolio of my London paintings. Love that the format of the book is the actual size of my tiny 6×6 inch paintings so it frames them perfectly. Yuri Huzzband commented on the paintings looking on the pages even better then in real life (ha), so it’s worth a flip through if you get a chance.

24 pages,  2010,  listed on Blurb

A beautiful Hawksmoor church in Spitalfields, the best shot a could get at it on a rainy day.

oil on panel,  2010,  listed on Etsy

Past Sunday I spotted this girl asking a stylishly dressed passer-by  to pose for a pic, undoubtefully for one of the face hunting blogs that show the fashionably dressed folk spotted on the streets of London, Paris, and Amsterdam.

oil on panel,  2010,  listed on Etsy