The Cityscapes

Impressions of Barcelona, Oil on Canvas, Paola Minekov

Author and artist - Paola Minekov -

Sometimes you arrive in a strange city completely by chance and you immediately feel at home… And sometimes you may have lived there all your life, know every block of pavement as the palm of your hand, and yet you just can’t shed this uneasy feeling that perhaps you don’t really belong there.

Our relationship with urban spaces is long and complex, an integral part of our evolution as species. What defines the character of a city? Is it the architecture, the private memories we share with someone special, the unique light, the smells?

Amsterdam, Acrylic on Canvas, Paola Minekov

When I paint the cities I’ve lived in and visited, I do so from memory and a few rather vague sketches. I’m not looking for realism but for that spark which inspires me to return to a place, in my mind, again and again. I let my impressions of the streets, buildings and nature take over and turn into abstractions until the picture I see when I close my eyes is clear and distinctly mine.

Then I transfer it to the canvas.

Gaslight London, Acrylic on Panel

Right now, I live in London. For me, it's a place like no other. It has the appeal of a powerful, ancient city that is still making the transition to the ultra-modern, where cosy little alleys run alongside skyscrapers and quirky, colourful fashion overpowers dress suits, while the mist above the Thames is a reminder of centuries of rich history.

Gaslight London, the paining above, is a contemporary take on the classic view of the city’s historical centre. All great cities are built near a river or the sea and London, with its impressive bridges, makes no exception.

As an artist, I find the reflections of light in water a fascinating extension of our physical world, an alternative reality I can spend hours exploring in my art.