olha pryymak

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

more skywatching:

Usually a buzzing place, there was no one inside the cafe today, all sunning themselves outside, lingering over their coffees and cakes, irrespective of the very ugly at the moment lake outside, all emptied out, fenced in, with pigeons basing in last remaining water. I think the builders will have us stuck with the site for the rest of the summer. Still, need for the sun prevails and we unflappably take our coffee outside.

A little vignette of some people working in the lovely Leila’s cafe this Friday.

This past Thursday was the Royal Academy Summer show submission day, so there were no pictures here for a few days. While there, saw lots of lost-looking artists with telling bubble-wrapped canvases in their hands – all waterproof, except mine, and I cycled; almost got blown off the road by the wind -has been very blustery in London recently; and I totally overestimated what I can carry in my trusty Brompton front basket. And of course it rained on the way. So wish me luck…

I get this question a lot: do you paint from life or from photos? Both, I use my own photos, sketches, and imagination – all in mixed proportions. You see, I am most interested in painting human gestures, attitudes to their environment that are pretty much impossible to capture in-situ. In my book, the final result is what matters. Painting purely from life though is a lot of fun, it’s like the game with many more constraints (time and weather being the biggest ones). I really got into this game when painting a self-portrait this past week (forgot to take a pic of it in haste, will do and post it here when it’s back from the jury). I wold like to carry on with purely life paintings here for a while, most likely with no people in them, no preliminary sketches, strait to the board.

The airplane tracks in today’s first purely life painting were all gone by the time I finished painting them. New ones kept coming up from the direction of Heathrow airport. The naked trees were more obliging subjects to paint. Back to the painting of the day now, will post it here late tonight.

2011, oil on panel, 15 x 15 cm, 69 gbp via Etsy

I often get comments on why do I leave out the detail of the face.  The reason is simple – when I saw this scene, the light was what is important in it, the bright rays of sunshine basing the pavement. People who cut though this light are here to emphasize it and demonstrate it’s beauty. They are part of the scene, but human faces are so powerful and so attractive to the eye, that if I focus on their faces, the scene will become about them rather then the light.

Third 20×20 cm painting of the shiny Queen Victoria street in the City.

2010, oil on hardboard, 20×20 cm, £225 via GoFigurative

The wet streets of London after the major snowfall : not a bit of snow left on the ground, just the enormous reflection pool for street lights at dusk.

Getting ready for a show at Hampstead, six of my little paintings are scheduled to go up there  on July 22nd, including this one. This is a well-loved image of mine . The columns create a kind of a natural frame for the painting. In spite of loads of architectural detail, it also looks very minimal.

The inspiration from the Albertina palace continues to pour into these little bright interiors this week.

Finished a large commissioned painting for a client. Pretty happy with its outcome, alas can’t take a proper picture of it in my darkish studio.

oil on canvas, 46×60 in, 2010, sold