Painting Gypsy Woman, artist Orest Tsyupko

• Artist: Orest Tsyupko
• Title: "Gypsy Woman"
• Year: 2018
• Size: 40 × 50 cm
• Materials: canvas, oil
• Original hand-painted painting

Gypsy Woman is a vertical composition with a tall, slender female figure in a dark dress at its centre. The heroine’s head is only suggested: a warm ochre face and a bright red accent above it, recalling a headscarf or an ornament. From the upper left corner down to the lower part of the canvas a multicoloured whirl unfolds in a wide arc — a flowing skirt, a shawl or the movement of a dance enveloping the figure. Near the right edge another small figure can be seen, painted in fiery orange and blue strokes. Behind the heroine a light rectangle can be made out, like a window or an opening framed in dark blue.

The work is painted in oil in an expressive manner with a pronounced relief of the paint layer. The paint is applied thickly, in impasto, in places with a palette knife or a broad brush, leaving ridges and shifts of paint on the surface. The form is not drawn in detail but is born from the movement of the stroke — the image appears like a flash, an impression of music and dance. The artist’s signature is written in red paint in the lower right corner. Visible tool marks and overlapping layers of colour keep the surface alive: it changes with the viewing angle and the light.

Colour is the main carrier of emotion here. The blue-grey, light blue and lilac background creates a cool, slightly misty setting against which the yellow, red, orange, lime and turquoise strokes of the whirl sound especially bright. The dark figure in the centre balances this riot of colour and lends the image a sense of mystery. The mood is passionate and festive, full of movement, freedom and temperament traditionally associated with the image of the gypsy woman in art.

Orest Tsyupko was born in 1963 in Lviv; he is a member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine and director of the Khust City Art Gallery. In 1989 he graduated from the Lviv State Institute of Applied and Decorative Arts, where he studied in the ceramics department. The artist works in landscape, still life, portrait and genre painting, combining elements of realism, Art Nouveau and symbolism.

The compact vertical format of 40 × 50 cm allows the painting to be placed in a living room, bedroom, hallway or home study. The bright palette on a cool background will enliven a calm interior in light or grey-blue tones and nicely support textile and ceramic accents. The work will be an emotional gift for a woman who loves dance and music, as well as for a man who appreciates expressive painting with character.