olha pryymak

A quiet day indoors today. I am turning back to my favorite subject – the Dennis Severs’ House.

I am thinking a bit what drives me to keep painting the Dennis Severs’ House (I yet have not gotten to all of the rooms in it) and can’t exactly pin it down. It must be the allure of a soft warm bed, the coziness, pot of tea on the  card table, a hint of a fireplace present in the room. It’s my way to beat the winter blues.

Here is a large rendition of the Dennis Severs’ House, Unmade bed, as compared to the initial small painting. A friend of mine had a laugh when looking at it the other day, commented: “It looks like an upmarket Tracey Emin’s bed to me”.

I am back to the cozy interiors of the Dennis Severs House.  I think I really fancy an idea of a fireplace in my house… No contributions to Etsy today, most likely all my DSH paintings are going to come together in an exhibit sometime very soon.

The last of the triptych. Three images of the rushing City  lunch crowd zooming past a narrow dim Gun street in Spitalfields.

This corner of the City is very near my beloved House. The patch of bright sun at the end of this street steered me away from it’s dark interiors.

Fun bit of publicity here: BBC  has put out a very nice feature about my blog, all content is in Ukrainian, written by amazing Svitlana Pyrkalo.

As you walk down stairs from the first to the ground floor of the house, this bust dominates the scene. Mick mentioned it could have been actually Mozart’s sister’s likeness. Speaking of Mick, here is a good interview with him.

You may have noticed I have not listed neither of the House paintings on Etsy. It’s because they are going to go up in a show later this year, later released as artists’ copies.

This is the second floor bedroom of Elizabeth Jervis – the Dennis Severs’ House resident in 18c. She just stepped out, but her presence is felt there still.

First of a few I hope, here is a painting of the wonderful Dennis Severes’ House in Spitalfields; bought in shambles in the 70′s and restored to it’s 18th c. life, the House is a true London experience, hard to describe in words. The curious cat of the house – Marge – came to check on me as I was painting downstairs; the City folk above strode unaware they are much easier heard through the ancient walls;  had to pop out for coffee as the chimney sweepers took over the room to do their work – things just go very differently in the House.

Of one of my favourite streets in East London, a little alley really, called the Dray Walk, that turns into a street party every night on weekends. The record shop is amazing, in addition the little cafe in it has the best coffee on this side of Brick Lane. Not to mention the amazing boutiques and sumptuous pizza at Story Deli.

Meanwhile I continue posting my tea and coffee cup watercolours on Etsy. I know its totally different from what I paint in oil, but I just can’t get it out of my system yet (saying this while sipping a cup of Napuk brew from Mariage Freres, yum!).

30 x 30 cm (12×12 in), oil on panel ,  listed on Etsy