Ukraine Oil Painting English Sparrow on Bread Tower
Slava Ukraini! Among the Ukrainian artists I’ve discovered while trying to bring attention both to their work and their tenacity and spirit during war time is Lena Vylusk. Her oil paintings depicting animals and birds in unusual settings, often with nostalgic props, struck me as both sweet and surreal. This piece depicts an English sparrow feasting on a teetering pile of bread.
Oil on canvas, unframed, but with silver paint on the canvas edges. 10” x 11.75”
Elena Vylusk was born in Donetsk, where she started painting and graphics, which she continued to hone at the Kharkov Academy of Design and Arts. She paints in oil, and is attracted by the objects that surround us in everyday life, including animals, without which our life wouldn't be so exciting. She likes to put her characters in an unusual environment so that the viewer can see their story.
I have been collecting vintage Italian tole-ware icons and triptychs with the intention of painting over the cheap reproductions of religious paintings and painting portraits of insects and wildflowers instead. The series will be called Toward a New Iconography.