olha pryymak

On the way to the West End. This is one of the least pleasant parts of the journey, looked paint – worthy yesterday for some reason, must have been the clear skies.

19 x 19 cm, oil on panel, 2011, buy it here

Other skies: 

The glass and steel structures give a perfect opportunity to concentrate on the skies above.

more skywatching:

A guy who was walking around Lviv with the largest bunch of the balloons on 18 April.

Looking around the Bank intersection, chock full of old and new architecture contrasts. See more paintings of it below.

2011, oil on panel, 19 x 19 cm, purchase it via Etsy

Here the building, designed by Jean Nouvel opens up to – and multiplies in its reflections – the magnificent dome of St. Paul’s. The look of it all is a bit busy for my taste, but in my book glass and mirrors beat plain blocks of concrete.

Don’t forget to subscribe here to get my blog posts in your mailbox.

Just got a call from Spitalfields life - a fantastically edited and designed blog about my hood in London – they will interview me next week about my London paintings blog.  So since both of us are particularly interested in the East End area of London – I’ve played with Flickr to plugged my paintings onto their map. The result is quite fun, go check it out.

Also, I am expanding my pages count on this blog (further redesign to come soon) to include a Press page containing a few clippings about my work that I am slowly accumulating here.

I was very taken by the architecture of the Somerset House. The entryway and the courtyard inside are a joy to paint. Loved the patterns in this composition, the way the sun lit half the space, half left in bluish shade.

6×6 in, oil on panel, 2010, contact for availability

Trying to make the best of the situation, I took a day trip to Lviv to go on my usual gallery run. Thanks to a help from  dear friend, I was pleasantly surprised to find two new galleries offering superb content.  Marta Hrytsyk’s Vitamins show at LvivArt was my absolute favoarite. Meanwhile I run out of my hardboard to paint on and experimenting with new materials: copper plated board.

6×6 in, oil on copper plated panel, 2010, for sale on Etsy

Dog Bulya, oil on gessoed board 7×7 inch 2008

Please email me your bid (starting at $75) if you’d like to own this piece.

This little painting is part of my favorite plush toy portrait series. We were watching a children’s video Auntie Owl and the dog character there was named Bulya. For now every plush dog in the house is called Bulya. The book in the background here is Liza and Her Dreams by brilliant Ukrainian children’s book illustrator Gapchinska.

Just got back from a week long vacation in Barcelona. So much to share: some great architecture, interesting quirky art and local designers.

Check out menchen Tomas (women’s) on c/ rec. 46 and Oscar H. Grand (men’s) on c/barra de ferro 7 for bespoke tailoring. Oscar does his work straight from the shop floor to the coolest music on his ipod. Next door Popi Jabiansky exposes his Pietro della Francesca inspired art at a local internet cafe. (I loved it because I did a similar take on my rents’ portrait several years ago).

Besides there were great local food (pan con tomato and potato/beans/etc. tapas) drinks (rjoha and cava – the catalan bubbly) as well as the Spanish Gothic and Gaudi architecture. My friend Wendy will write a more extended review of this trip on her travel blog and I will link here here soon to give you more detail.