Dacha Life

20x25cm Neocolor sticks; 30x40cm Oil pastel on tempera background

Sketchbook pages.

Buddies

Tempera,20 x 25cm

Shoes as an endless source of inspiration.

Advice: Manolo Blahniks's Instagram (here) helps to lock our crazy world away for a while.

Sketchbook Pages

Outdoor drawing sessions in my sketchbook.

Clown, 8 Years Older

The old clown is laughing and still making jokes on the shelf. I already tried to draw him in the beginning of my art story, in faraway 2009. Here he is, and I love them both.

See You Next Winter

Narrow shelf near the entrance door several weeks ago was holding my winter savers - mittens, gloves, beanie. Today these guys are washed and hidden in the wardrobe to wait for next winter.

Warm and Cool Palette

Trying to catch day colors using warm (up) and cool (down) palettes. After so many times sketching the same view from the window, I painted these frames from memory.

Last Page in Next Sketchbook

Another sketchbook is finished. This ink sketch of the corner of my apartment was drawn on the last page in 2016-2017 sketchbook chronicles.

Early Morning in Ikea Cafe

Deserted Ikea, right after the opening, gave me kind of surrealistic feeling. Empty rooms, which are always so alive and crowded, were calm and lonely. Cafe, silent and loaded with food. Little version of planet Earth after the end of times.

Ordinary disastrous every day events in my country and overall rise of temperature in the world completely washed away my wish to express myself in blogging. But suddenly the spammers helped. The amount of spam became unbearable, which usually shows that blog is forgotten by its owner and needs revival. So here I am, drawing, painting, blogging. I hope you are all right out there, my friends.

Copying Masters: Charles Reid

Another attempt of mine to solve the secret of transparent and breathing watercolors of inexpliсable, inimitable, talented and unpredictable Mr. Charles Reid (his site).

Dreaming Desperately

It was a shot I unexpectedly caught on TV when scrolling the channels. Russian movie about a lonely woman dreaming to meet the right man was actually a complete disaster, but this scene was great with dark background, red necklace, roses on the table. I memorized it and painted later in tempera.

Bert Dodson "Keys to Drawing"

These inks and shapes were inspired by the task in Bert Dodson's amazing book (Amazon link). This book and everyday practice can make miracles to any newbie with a pencil, I believe it and I know it.

 

The Architectural Fantasy

My fantasy about the Orthodox Church in Kotor, Montenegro in November 2016.

Sweet November

Sweet quiet November evening in Budva, Montenegro.

The Night

I tried, but failed to show the silver of the Adriatic Night. I will practice more.

The Blue of the Sea

The Adriatic Sea has the impossibly beautiful emerald-light blue color. Just look at it and all your problems go away.

Little Marina

Have you ever dreamed to own a yacht? I never did. I am afraid of open spaces with no land in sight. But what a joy to see them, boats and yachts, these beautiful proves of human brain's achievements.

Babushkas

I suppose the ladies are discussing the grandchildren, warm autumn and stranger, who's taking a photo of them.

Three Images

Pizza in that restaurant was not a success, but the view has beaten it easily up.
Interesting, that each window section of these three can make a separate finished painting

EDM #82. Draw Your Art Space

Recently I have bought Raeskog - IKEA's 3levels utility cart (the one in the middle). It is of rich burnt sienna color, and it is love from first sight. Should I say that I love to go to IKEA once in a while, to feel I am in Stockholm, in Europe, in law and order?

Raeskog perfectly fitted into the picture, now my drawing and painting tools are well arranged and on wheels.

The sketch is about the art space, I am the lucky one to have the separate area for the creative experiments. Have just realized that every furniture item in the picture is brought from IKEA...

EDM #37 Draw Some Keys

Here is the narrow cabinet near the entrance door. I sketched its everyday busy life: apartment keys, car keys, yellow "forget me not" shopping list, old mp3 player - can't throw, don't know where to use.
Once again my many many thanks to ideas list of Danny Gregory (here)