olechko

15×15 cm, oil on board, 2008, private collection
… selling potatoes and pickles - the typical Ukrainian winter fare. She had the look of dignity and dreaminess in her eyes that can only be compared to that of the Unknown Woman by Kramskoi. The trick must be in the hat.

Speaking of traditional realist painting (which I sure hope to develop s I have more time to spend on each piece), a great young American painter Jeremy Lipking seem to carry on the traditional Russian realist painting with great success.

We’ve met up last night at my place with LittleMissMoi and MindtheGap to size up the apartment for the upcoming exhibit and think of the best way to arrange the works on the walls.

oil on canvas board; 18×24 cm, 2008, private collection

This lady along with many others commute up to Kyiv to sell what her garden produced during the summer for some extra cash. Usually this produce is the freshest and best quality in the market, but one needs to spend more time finding the right “babushka” with the necessary stuff. The kiosks that I’ve been dwelling on recently are an easier target to find (and paint, xo).

Great news, beautiful MindtheGap and LittleMissMoi are taking in their hands the organization of my exhibit at the end of March! Updates are coming soon.

Another interesting artist Alika Cooper is putting out figurative paintings of mobile homes and American devoshkas.

Did I talk enough here about Yuri Solomko? He represented Ukraine at Venice biennale and is most famous for his paintings on maps. Yet have to go see what he came up with for the decoration of the new Hyatt hotel in Kyiv. I hear he put out by himself hundreds of paintings to decorate each and every room in the hotel.