Painting Gander, artist Olena Lytka

• Artist: Olena Lytka
• Title: "Gander"
• Year: 2026
• Size: 60 × 80 cm
• Materials: acrylic and oil on canvas, playing cards, varnish
• Original hand-painted artwork

"Gander", from the artist's series "Tvarynovladstvo" (a play on "animal husbandry"), is an ironic portrait in which the main character is given human features. A goose with a black neck and white "cheeks" sits at a table, a crown tilted on its head, dressed in a jacket with a harlequin pattern of red and green diamonds and a shirt with a fine ornament. With an ochre-coloured human hand the gander holds a fan of playing cards, while resting the other hand on the table. On the left of the table are a chessboard with pieces and three more cards; on the right, at the edge of the diamond pattern, a sleeping cat assembled from geometric planes is curled up. Behind the hero is a cloud-shaped chair back, blue with pink squares, and on a shelf in the upper right corner stand painted clay jugs and pots.

The work is executed in mixed media: acrylic and oil with collage elements. Real playing cards are glued into the painted surface — both in the goose's hand and on the table — and then, like the whole painting, covered with varnish. The background and clothing are painted in flat, clearly bounded fields of colour in the spirit of modernist painting and posters, while the goose's head, by contrast, is rendered in detail and in volume, with a highlight in the eye and soft modelling of the beak. The cat and the jacket are built from angular, almost cubist fragments. This combination of flat and three-dimensional, painted and real, gives the work a playful character. The signature "Liberty" is in the lower right corner.

The dominant tone of the painting is the deep turquoise-green of the background, against which the blue "cloud" with pink squares and the warm terracotta, mustard and ochre shades of the costume stand out vividly. The black-and-white head of the goose becomes the focal point in both meaning and colour, and the red suits of the cards add pinpoint accents. The mood is witty and slightly theatrical: is this a reckless gambler or a self-proclaimed king? The viewer is invited to decide who is bluffing here.

Olena Lytka (pseudonym LIBER-TY) is a self-taught Ukrainian artist from Dnipro who left her previous profession about five years ago to devote herself to painting. Besides oil, she works in mixed media, combining oil, acrylic and collage elements, and in her new works she uses unusual materials such as playing cards. She founded the KOMA artists' association in Dnipro.

The vertical 60 × 80 cm format fits easily into a living room, home study, games room or office — above a desk or next to bookshelves. The rich green background looks good on light walls and in interiors with wood, brass and dark furniture. The painting will make a witty gift for a man, a colleague or a partner who loves cards or chess, or simply appreciates humour in art; it comes with a certificate of authenticity.