Drawing Touch, artist Oleksandr Yatsenko

• Artist: Oleksandr Yatsenko
• Title: "Touch"
• Year: 2019
• Size: 80 × 65 cm
• Materials: felt-tip pens on paper
• Original hand-made drawing

The drawing Touch is built on mirrored, rotational symmetry. It shows two female figures: one in the upper left of the sheet, the other in the lower right, turned upside down in relation to the first. Both are depicted with closed eyes, and their long blue hair spills across the sheet in broad wavy streams that frame the whole composition. The light checkered silhouettes of the two women meet in the centre, where their arms and legs intertwine at the moment of touch. A horizon line runs through the middle with silhouettes of city blocks, repeated in the lower half like a reflection in water. The background is filled with patterned blocks, "fabrics" and stripes, so the sheet resembles a patchwork quilt.

The work is made with felt-tip pens on paper. The artist uses a dense network of lines and hatching: every area is filled with its own ornament — chequerboard, diamonds, arch motifs, arcs, fine parallel hatching. The hair is worked up in voluminous wavy strands with coloured outlines, the faces in neat thin lines. The image is made up of hundreds of small elements and gives the impression of a carpet or a mosaic created through long, painstaking work.

The palette is pink-lilac, violet and light blue with accents of crimson, red and black. The light striped areas of the background and the pale figures in the centre give the eye a rest amid the rich pattern. The atmosphere of the drawing is dreamlike and tender: the closed eyes of the women, the flowing streams of hair and the mirrored composition create a feeling of silence, closeness and inner dialogue.

Oleksandr Yatsenko is a contemporary Ukrainian artist (born 1980, Cherkasy) who lives and works in Kyiv. In his work he combines painting with elements of graphics, mosaic and ornament, and the fine detail of his works recalls graphic drawing or openwork ornament. Among the artist's key themes are human self-identity and the connection between the natural and human worlds.

The 80 × 65 cm format allows the drawing to hang in a bedroom, living room, study or a small room where it can be viewed up close. The work is sold unframed: for graphics on paper it is worth choosing a frame with glass and a mat — a light mat will emphasise the fineness of the lines. The pink-lilac palette will fit well into interiors in lavender, powder and light blue tones. The drawing will be an original gift for a woman or a loved one as a symbol of tenderness and mutual understanding.