💌 Your Artist Newsletter - August

Aug 30

3 min read

Hi friends,

I knocked down an artwork in Berlin.

It was allowed, I promise.

At Hamburger Bahnhof, I came across Lina Lapelytė’s We Make Years Out of Hours, a huge installation made from thousands of wooden blocks. Visitors were invited to build, rearrange and destroy.

People made little houses, furniture, walls and even thrones. I found myself strangely bothered by all the walls, so as I walked through, I leaned into one.

CRASH.

Later, I overheard the artist saying she'd imagined people might come together to build large structures collectively. Instead, most of us created smaller things alone or in little groups.

I loved that even the artist didn't entirely know what people would do once the work was handed over to them.

Six weeks of looking

I came home after six weeks in Poland and Berlin with a notebook full of scribbles, sketches and ideas.

I visited a lot of galleries, particularly in Poland, reconnecting with artists I knew and loved when I was younger.

One of them was Stanisław Wyspiański. I had a set of postcards of his paintings as a kid, and some of those portraits are still incredibly vivid in my memory.

At my dad's house, I also found my old set of pastels, still in surprisingly good condition. I tested them, packed them into my suitcase and brought them back to Melbourne.

I haven't opened them since.

Yet.

Wyspianski's Self-portrait and Pastel drawing of a baby. My pastel set.

There was plenty of inspiration outside the galleries too: kayaking with family, the mountains, cycling along the Dunajec, the Baltic coast, my dad's garden and Poland being ridiculously green.

I kept noticing the waist-high grass and messy weeds growing beside railway tracks, roads and forgotten pieces of land.

My Australian brain kept thinking: we could never do this because of snakes.

Sometimes it looked neglected. Sometimes it was beautiful. Sometimes it was simply nature doing its thing.

Painting my dad's garden

My parents planted their garden from scratch when they built the house, and it's been growing and changing ever since. My dad still puts an enormous amount of work into it.

While I was there, we made an easel out of leftover pieces of wood so I could paint outside.

So I spent some time painting the garden, in the garden. Very green, slightly chaotic, and very Polish summer.

Back in the studio

Since coming home, I've been experimenting with something new in my landscapes.

I've started introducing circles and squares, interrupting and obscuring parts of the landscape and exploring the tension between geometry and nature, order and chaos, light and darkness.

I'm only at the beginning, and I don't quite know where it's going yet.

That's probably why I'm excited about it.

I'm also continuing to work on portraiture.

At the moment I'm doing long-pose oil painting, spending around 15 hours on one portrait.

In October, I'll be doing almost the exact opposite: expressive portraits in five minutes or less.

I like having both in my toolbox. Fast, slow, detailed, loose. They all teach me different ways of looking.

Come and say hello

"Primary Instincts" | Polish Art Foundation Exhibition

Exhibition: 22 September – 3 October 2026 Opening: Saturday 26 September, 4-6pm Venue: fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne

I'll be exhibiting and taking part in an artist talk with another exhibiting artist. We'll be chatting about our practices, how we work and what actually goes into making the art.

Artist talk: 1 October

Exhibition + Artist Talk

Inner West Art Fair | 16–18 October

I'll have a little booth drawing expressive portraits in around five minutes.

Sit down, pose for me, and walk away with an original A5, A4 or A3 portrait for $29.

Please adjust your expectations accordingly: this is five-minute Olga, not fifteen-hour Olga.

There'll be plenty of other artists, live music, wine and snacks too.

Come say hello!

https://www.innerwestartfair.com.au/

IWAF Details

Minnie Gallery | Sandringham | November

I'll also be part of a group exhibition of around ten artists at Minnie Gallery, where I previously had an art residency.

It's a beautiful space, and I'm particularly excited about the art community that's growing on this side of Melbourne.

More details soon.

One small favour

I'm also putting a lot of energy into growing the live painting side of my practice, for both weddings and other events.

If you know someone planning a wedding, corporate event, gala or celebration who might love having an artist painting live, I'd really appreciate you passing my work along.

Wedding Day Painter

Live Event Painter

And now, back to that notebook.

There are six weeks' worth of ideas in there that I haven't properly unpacked yet.

Time to see which ones make it onto canvas.

Olga x

Olga Dziemidowicz, Aspendale VIC, Australia

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