olha pryymak

Today’s picture is of a lovely occasion – the Arnold Day at the Arnold Circus in East London: brass band, tea and cake, colorful balloons and balmy weather.

I am already planning another trip to Lviv in my mind, this keeps fueling my interest in painting more of the beautiful city. The fountain sculpture of Diana (1793) and her dogs on the Market square in Lviv was restored with the help of public donations a few years back after one of the dogs lost his paw. These table and chairs in the painting belong to the cafe By the Diana surrounding the beautiful fountain. I miss spending Thursday nights there drinking chilled kvas from heavy glass beer mugs and watching street dancers making their moves.

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

While on the case of the beekeeping I have come across a much more personal story back in Ukraine. This gentleman from Lutsk takes care about over 20-30 colonies of bees and does carpentering, producing magnificent beehives by hand. He has lost his legs in a train accident in not such distant past. Now lives in a hut full of beekeeping paraphernalia and the workshop next door with his dog and three puppies under the bed. The conditions are very simple yet the conversation carried on strikingly intelligent, on the topics of design and medicine.  Amazing how the noble occupation of beekeeping helps transcend one’s conditions in life.

My architect girlfriend confessed to me once that her biggest grief in work is dealing with the engineers, and how the cost efficiency and availability of materials dictate how buildings turn out to look like eventually. When going to school, in her mind, picking the architectural track was going to give her a good balance of creative and practical work, when in fact it all came down to negotiations with the builders.

Looking at the old buildings (those predating mass production and more or less the industrial revolution), I pause to think how much say did the architect have in shaping the way it looks. I would assume that the architectural craft was much more well regarded back in the days.

Today’s picture has both, the One New Exchange and a spear of a church in the background, tied together by a bright tube sign pole.

The beautiful 5 Fournier street, and the Town House next door, across the street from Christ Church in Spitalfields. The shadow of the church cuts across the picture.

You can search the Etsy site by already available categories in the right hand column. Or just enter your color/subject/media preferences into the search bar. It’s important to look through quite a few pages because only the most recently published work ends up on top.

Also, lots of my clients found me through Shop Local option on the site, typing in the area you live in, eg. “London, UK” for the list of artists from your area. As a result, I have often delivered the artwork in person or had people pop into my studio to pick up the artwork. ? This made for much more personal and reassuring shopping experience for everybody.

You must know that painting and any art-making in general is usually a very lonely experience so dropping a message via the contact form, even if it’s just a comment on the artwork, would make an artist’s day.???? Do use this contact form as well if you are unsure of the specifics, and want to find out more detail before hitting the Buy button.

I am going canoeing on the canal today!

Since I am seeing the theme forming in my work, ill be marking post headers with something like “Vitamin D” every time I paint sunshine from now on. This painting is one such case – love the direct sunshine onto the stalls of the Leila’s shop in Shoreditch. Unlike the ugly Hackney road though, this is one place that does not need sunshine to appear pretty and attractive.

Also, all the displayed veggies and fruit bring home the point that our life would be pretty miserable without sunshine (although not totally impossible; see David Attenborough’s First Life on first signs of life appearing on this planet deep in the seas near volcanic vents).

2011, oil on panel, 15 x 15 cm, sold

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This is a side street on Hackney road that had smoke gashing out of one of the buildings. The next moment I saw a firetruck passed by and did not stop there, so I guess the smoke was there for a reason. The sun came through the smoke in the most impossibly beautiful color. The two kids on the corner were ignoring the smoke as well, taking in their share of vitamin D. Speaking of vitamin D, this is the new subject of my work for the moment. I’ve realized I’ve been painting sunshine for some weeks now. Must be the vitamin D deficiency.