Painting Portofino, artist Yegor Dulin

• Artist: Yegor Dulin
• Title: "Portofino"
• Year: 2026
• Size: 100 × 75 cm
• Materials: oil on canvas; shipped rolled in a tube, unstretched
• Original hand-painted artwork

The painting shows Portofino, a harbour on the Italian Riviera, at the hour when dusk settles over the town. The eye travels upwards: in the foreground, boats and yachts with slender masts rock at the quay, their hulls and golden reflections breaking up in the dark water. Above the waterfront rises a dense row of multicoloured houses with blue roofs and a rhythm of dark windows; on the left a bell tower with a dome and a clock rises above the rooftops, and higher up the slope light villas stand among thick greenery. The top third of the canvas is taken up by an almost black wooded hillside, against which the little town glows like a theatre stage. In the lower left corner the blue edge of an awning or a boat cuts in diagonally, strengthening the feeling that the viewer is standing right on the quay.

The work is painted broadly and in impasto: thick oil paint is applied with palette knife and brush in raised, clearly legible strokes. The façades are built from dense slabs of orange, pink and ochre, shutters and windows are marked with short blue and dark touches, and the water below becomes a mosaic of vertical colour bands, the way a plein-air painter conveys reflections without drawing them. The dark green of the hill is laid in with swirling strokes in which yellow specks of light flare up. The artist's signature in Latin letters can be read at the lower right.

The colour scheme rests on a strong contrast: deep green-violet darkness above and the warm orange-gold glow of the waterfront below. Blue roofs and blue reflections cool the picture and tie it to the sea. The light is evening, electric light, pouring from windows and the quay and falling on the water in yellow paths. The mood is a southern summer evening, when the heat eases, lights come on in the harbour and the small fishing town becomes especially cosy and festive.

The author is Ukrainian artist Yegor Dulin, who has taken part in regional, national and international exhibitions and plein-air events since 1999. Italy is familiar subject matter for him: in 2019 he worked at the international plein-air event "Italy 2019". In 2025 his "Marine" series won its category and was published in the pages of the London newspaper The Times.

At 100 × 75 cm this is a large horizontal canvas that comfortably holds a big wall in a living room, above a sofa or fireplace, or in a study or meeting room. The rich, contrasting palette looks good on light walls and in interiors with dark wood, leather and brass. The painting is shipped rolled in a tube, unstretched, and is stretched onto a frame at a framing workshop before hanging. "Portofino" makes an excellent gift for a man, a traveller or a business partner with warm memories of Italy.