(2020 Update: In 2020, I developed a series of paintings based on the original drawings, which were presented on 10th June 2019 at the Portuguese Embassy in Warsaw as part of Dia de Portugal, The Day of Portugal, hosted by Ambassador Luís Cabaço.) In the beginning of 2018, I embarked on a slightly experimental project: a series of portraits of…

Women artist don’t enjoy the kind of spotlight men often get. Kira Cochrane from the Guardian wrote 3 years ago: How many female artists featured in the top 100 auction sales, ranked by price, last year? Gemma Rolls-Bentley, an independent curator, decided to find out. One day, not long ago, she sat down with the 2012 list, “and spent a…

A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous ― Ingrid Bergman The first kiss, like a job interview, can be a thoroughly nerve-racking experience. This curious way of passing approx. 80 million bacteria from our lips to someone else’s generates so many anxieties and uncertainties that the internet is flooded with articles…

I have been meaning to write about time and ageing for a while now. What prompted me to do so is the autobiography of Dorothea Tanning, Between Lives: An Artist and Her World (2001), which I am currently reading. I discovered Tanning a few weeks ago, when I was writing a blog post on “artwives” and instantly became fascinated with…

As I’ve been working on the new paintings for last few weeks, I have been reminded of what it is like to be a stereotypical artist – the one whose mood swings, bursts of anger and despair are barely sufferable for anyone in the vicinity. Somehow painting is a much more intense type of work for me than writing, and…

One day you see a strange little girl look at you One day you see a strange little girl feeling blue She’d run to the town one day Leaving home and the country fair Just beware when you’re there, strange little girl She didn’t know how to live in a town that was rough It didn’t take long before she…

Last weekend, I registered for the BP Portrait Award, which is an annual portraiture competition held at the National Portrait Gallery in London. It was started in 1979 and was initially sponsored by John Player & Sons, a tobacco company, but British Petroleum took over sponsorship of the competition in 1989 – hence the name. The exhibition opens in June…

After several weeks of writing essay-like posts in which I devour and analyse new and old favourite artists, books, exhibitions etc., I decided to take a little break and write about my current project. I don’t usually share my work-in-progress, nor do I document it step-by-step. For one thing, I get completely immersed in any new artistic venture, so that…

A few days ago I watched a film which affected me in a way only a handful of films did (recent ones include Lars von Trier’s Melancholia, Lukas Moodysson’s Lilja 4-ever or Jan Komasa’s Suicide Room). From Inside is an animated movie created by John Bergin (credited as writer, producer, director, and animator), based on his graphic novel about a young…

As the New Year approaches, like many people, I have an urge to go through old boxes of non-descript “stuff” and transfer their contents to rubbish/ recycling bags; tick off all the remaining tasks on my to-do list, sort out whatever there is to be sorted, and make plans for the next year. End-of-year clearing immediately makes me think of…

So first, your memory I’ll jog, And say: A CAT IS NOT A DOG. — T. S. Eliot As I’m currently preparing a new series of cat drawings for the Kittytees, and had the pleasure of meeting Alice, my good friends’ cat last Saturday, I thought that I could dedicate this post to cats. Cats and artists – what a cliché,…

Painting sex in the East Yesterday I went to the Shunga: Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art exhibition at the British Museum. Translated literally, the word shunga means spring pictures (apparently “spring” is a euphemism for sex) and refers to erotic colour prints, painted hand-scrolls and printed books made between 1600 and 1900 in Japan. Despite a few periods of…