about Paris

The l'Insitut français d'Ukraine held a drawing competition about Paris.
I decided to participate and I've won!


I've never been to Paris. All my ideas of that city gleaned from books and movies. Especially from Hemingway's "A Moveable Feast". So when I will go to Paris at last I'll get Paris syndrome.. :)
So I didn't want to draw an Eiffel Tower or other most expectable place. I wanted to catch the atmosphere of the city (or actually of the Hemingway's book :-)), so I draw a famous Parisian bookstore.


 















And here is my trophy:

My trip to Lviv

Last month I went to Lviv Book Forum.
This is the biggest book fair in Ukraine, so I went there to meet people, to look what is going on with the illustration industry here, in Ukraine, to buy new books for me and for Martha and to walk the narrow streets of Lviv. And to sketch a lot.

Lviv is an amazing city. One of my favorite.

There are some photos in my instagram.
And here are my sketches:

Playground sketches

Last days I decided to take my sketchbook when I take Martha to the playground.

Here is some fast sketches of the kids.

Sketches from our sketch crawl

Last Saturday we had a sketchcrawl with our Urbansketchers Ukraine regional group.

And here are my sketches:

Mama

Last week my Mom came to studio with me. She wanted to start a new painting. 

I make two sketches of her when she paints.

Chess players in the park

Yesterday I came to Shevchenko park to sketch chess players. They come to this park every weekend to play chess for years and years. Almost all of them are pensioners and chess is there hobby.
Some of them bring there grandchildren and teaches them to play.
During years ago they played on the park benches, but now, after reconstruction, there are special chess tables in that corner of the park.
Very interesting people.
Hope to sketch them more some day.

Tragedy

I can't show pictures and write positive messages.
There are horrible doings in my country, Ukraine.
That thing begins like a peaceful protest now grows into the real street war between protesters and police. Three people dies. Two of them was shot. Shot by police.
Hundreds are injured.
I just can't believe this happens in my country, in my city...

You can read about Ukraine here
http://ukrainianweek.com/News/99591
http://maidan.in.ua/

Mass protests in Kyiv, Ukraine

This days in my city are a kind of revolution.
You can read about it here.
We were there too and I made a lot of sketches.

These are us in the left down corner of the photo. Olex is installing new film in his camera and I'm carrying my sketchbook. And Martha is looking all around.
It was strange feeling of being the part of that unbelievable crowd. All people are different, but all of them are Ukrainians and I was really proud of being Ukrainian.  

And here are sketches I made that day.

The Museum evening

Yesterday evening we went to the Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko Museum of Arts.
The photo cameras was prohibited, but not sketching ;-)
So I made a lot sketches of the exhibition.

Here are our guides Ludmila and Evgen.

Back home

We are home!
It was amazing long summer. And now I am ready to fall in Fall. :-)

I have a lot of sketches and watercolors from our travel, so I will show them piece by piece.
I scanned my sketchbook first, so lets start from sketches of the Black Sea :-)

The last sketch is about diver, who suddenly comes up to the surface right in front of us. Martha was surprised :-)

long summer

This year our summer is longer then ever.
It begins in may, when we went to the South of Ukraine, and now, when in Kyiv it is fall we are going to the Black Sea for three weeks. And there is my favorite warm sea and the sun and hills and I will draw a lot.
So see you in three weeks :-)

The Lake

Last weekend we went to the countryside to my mother's in law countryhouse.
There was a lake. And when Martha was swimming with her Dad, I could draw.

This summer is very special for me. I had a first honorarium for illustrations. And I start a new book with many-many illustrations.
And I draw a lot for myself. More then ever.
And my family makes me happy 24/7.
So, I am calm and happy and I know that everything in my life is right.
And I wish the same to all of you :)

Sketchbook pages

I like sketchbooks. This one is the second in this year. They'are like a diaries, but without secrets :-)
I like to make sketches everywhere I go to memorize all the interesting things and situations around me.
Through my sketchbooks I can trace the progress of myself as an artist.
And, off cause, I sketch and write all the ideas that come to my mind from time to time.

This is my friend Mila.

And this is Martha and her friend Zoriana watching cartoons.

Three days in the house with clock-tower

We had an amazing three days with our friends in a country house.
The house was adorable!
There was grass in front of the house with a tree in the middle (to make all day shadow). And forest. And the river! Martha was very happy mostly about a river :-)

There were many-many beautiful things in and around the house. I paint some of them but if I had more time I could paint dozens still-lifes :-)

32

My perfect husband gave me this amazing camera as a birthday present this morning. So I'm not very sad about my 32 years old. 

My mother in law sad "Don't be sad. Even when you are 65, this is not the end of life. Every morning, when you see the sun, be glad you are alive." The is very smart woman, you know.  :-)

So, now I'm adding another bead to the necklace of my age and trying to be grateful for everything. My perfect family, my friends, an opportunity to do what I love to do.. And trying to forget about things I don't have. As Balu Bear from "The Jungle Book" sang in his song:

"And don't spend your time lookin' around
For something you want that can't be found
When you find out you can live without it
And go along not thinkin' about it
I'll tell you something true
The bare necessities of life will come to you"

Happy birthday to me! Yeah!

:-)

Perfect cup

One day Olex bring me the perfect handmade cup from Germany.
And yesterday I broke it :-(
Sad sad sad.

Back home

We went to visit my Grandparents, who live near the Black Sea.
I live there when I was child and now I'm coming back every spring.

We didn't take any digital camera with us.
Only Bronica and sketching tools.
And I made some Instagram photos with my smartphone. (I'm mahasitha there)
It was amazing three weeks I spend with Martha and Olex together.

Martha's pictures

Martha likes to draw. If I need some time for myself I can give her painting stuff and she will be busy for an hour or some times even more :-) I just need to give her new paper every 15 minutes :-)

Her best for now is this crow. Someone draw the Sun and Martha paint that crow near it.

Totoro

Martha likes "My Neighbor Totoro"
Totoro and Catbus are her favorite characters and she wants me to draw them all the time :-)

When it was snow we even build Totoro snowmen :-)

Unfortunately we have only this dark instagram photo:

last weekend

Last weekend we went to Irpen (little town near Kyiv)

Everyone were talking, I was sketching, Martha was jumping :-)

And there are sketches below.

By the way my instagram is "mahasitha", and yours?