Sketch of the Mosaic Panel 'Scheme of World Structure' for the Exterior Design of the Ternopil Cotton Mill 1974

This is Valerii Lamakh's sketch for the 'Scheme of World Structure' mosaic panel at the Ternopil Cotton Mill. It’s all gentle greens and yellows, a kind of hopeful palette, laid down with what looks like watercolor or gouache. I bet Lamakh stood back and squinted at this a lot, trying to imagine the final mosaic. It's a study in how to flatten space, right? The figure almost blends into the background, becoming part of the overall design. And those vertical lines, are they wheat? Or maybe cotton? They create a rhythm that is both decorative and somehow structural. It feels like Lamakh was thinking about folk art, maybe even a bit of Byzantine mosaic work, reinterpreting it through a socialist lens. All artists are magpies, right? We steal from each other, remixing ideas across time and space. Painting is just a big conversation, a back-and-forth between artists, dead and alive, constantly inspiring each other to see the world in new ways.