Self Portrait with Saint George Cathedral

A man and a cathedral share one canvas. In Self Portrait with Saint George Cathedral, Oleksa Novakivskyi sets his own weathered face against the domes and buttresses of a sacred building, artist and architecture pressed into a single gaze. The portrait head is built in thick, confident strokes of olive, raw sienna and slate grey, the cheekbones catching light while one eye sinks into shadow. Behind him the cathedral rises in cooler blues and bone white, its dome and spires rendered with quick architectural shorthand rather than measured detail, so the building reads more as memory than survey. Painterly texture is visible everywhere, brushwork left rough on the coat and smoother across the stone. A study or hallway with strong daylight suits it, where the gaze can hold a room.