Kyiv Diary 2014

Vlada Ralko made this pen and watercolour work, Kyiv Diary, with ink and water meeting on the page to deliver these soft washes and frenetic lines. Look at how the figure is defined not by clean outlines but by a vibrant chaos of pen strokes, a sort of visual urgency. It gives the sense that Vlada is wrestling with this image, trying to capture something fleeting and vital. It makes me think about process: the artist's hand moving, reacting, adjusting. Are they trying to resolve, or embrace the inherent messiness of lived experience? I imagine them feeling both freedom and constraint, the push and pull of intention and accident. And the colour palette is interesting, too – muted browns and greens against that angry pink. It’s like the painting itself is a Molotov cocktail of expression. These artists remind us that painting isn’t just about making pretty pictures, but about grappling with what it means to be human, to feel, to resist.