03/03/2026
Artwork of the Day
Credit: Val Bonda
The girl in a pub
This portrait carries me back to East London, 2005, a restless, searching chapter of my life. I was living in a crowded shared house with fellow Moldovan workers, balancing long, practical days with an inner need to paint, to observe, to make sense of faces and fleeting moments.
The young woman in the painting was someone I met during that time. She possessed a rare brightness, the kind of presence that quietly shifts the atmosphere of a room. There was warmth in her expression, an ease, an unspoken optimism that felt both fragile and powerful. I did not want to paint only her features, but the feeling of her.
The portrait was created alla prima, without drawings or careful construction. Paint met canvas directly, guided by instinct. I allowed the brush to wander, to search, to respond rather than dictate. It was less an act of control and more a conversation, between observation, mood, and intuition.
The setting was far from a traditional studio: a pub in East London. The gentle noise of voices, the hum of life unfolding around me, and a couple of pints dissolved the usual self-consciousness. In that moment, painting became effortless, almost playful. There was no fear of failure, no weight of judgement, only the simple pleasure of seeing and translating.
When I look at this work now, I recognise not just a portrait, but a state of mind I still chase. A reminder that painting, at its most honest, does not begin with the hand but with something quieter and deeper. The hand may hesitate, but the heart rarely does.
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