I present to you my elegant artistic space, which combines my working art studio with a corner for clients and finished oil works, available for purchase.

Here, over a cup of aromatic coffee, you can purchase original oil paintings, as well as gift vouchers of various designs.

You will also have the opportunity to take a peek at “where the magic is made” and view started canvases in progress – they can be requested in advance, even before they are completely ready and before they are published on the website and on social media.

Continue reading Acrista Art Studio + Clients Area at Acrista Cafe.

I believe that creating something meaningful, impactful, and valuable requires time, patience, depth, inspiration, and authenticity.

The first large painting from the ballet series was created in 2018. I titled it “Among the Stars”, inspired by one of the beautiful poems by Radosveta Avramova – Caribiana. That title eventually gave its name to this entire exhibition.

In the following years, I continued developing studies for more ballet-themed paintings, as well as several female nude figures with surrealistic elements. Gradually, the concept for the exhibition began to take shape. For me, it has been a long journey and an exploration of my inner universe—a reflection of the delicate sensitivity with which I perceive the world.

Continue reading About the exhibition “Among the Stars” at Acrista Cafe.

Life, they say, is what you make of it.

This year, after a long period of hustling, I finally feel that I am choosing what is best for me, with self-love, with the full knowledge that my choices and approach to work and life in general, although desired by many, are not particularly popular, except perhaps among digital nomads and here and there the intrepid self-employed like myself.

Yes, I am more of a nomad this summer than ever before. For me, breaking away from absolute identification with work gives me freedom, which is a path to enrichment, charging, expanding horizons, exploring the world, gaining another perspective on myself.

Continue reading The Gifts of Summer at Acrista Cafe.

Today I present to you an exceptional Spanish artist whose work I first saw a few years ago in his hometown of Valencia. In fact, one of the main reasons I chose Madrid for our nomadic month was my desire to visit the Museo Sorolla in the Spanish capital. Therefore, on a hot June day, we walk to the wonderful house with a garden and with great pleasure immerse ourselves in its world, in search of inspiration, charging and enrichment.

Who is Joaquin Sorolla

Born in 1863 in Valencia, Joaquin Sorolla lost his parents as a child and together with his sister were raised by his aunt and uncle.

Continue reading Joaquin Sorolla – The Master of Light at Acrista Cafe.

I present to you a project, the implementation of which brought me great pleasure in all its aspects – from communicating with the client, through the creation process, to the arrangement of the picture in the interior. “Paint Me Love” is a commissioned oil painting that I created for a specific location and is my largest commission of a female figure to date. The whole project lasted one year.

When we started discussing the commission, the client and her husband had already purchased several of my other paintings. She was already familiar with the process of commissioning a painting (the article The Artistic Challenge can be read here and the rest of the details of how to commission an Acrista Art painting are in the FAQ on acrista.com) and we went straight to discussing which series / painting of mine we would be the inspiration for hers.

Continue reading Creating “Paint me Love” – commission artwork at Acrista Cafe.

The art world is full of clich?s, but it’s never too late to learn something new. The YouTube channel Great Art Explained is proof of that and is a precious art find.

In general, I am not a huge fan of “explained” series, but this one turned out to be very different. In it, curator and gallerist James Payne focuses on a particular famous painting or artist and makes an in-depth analysis of the work / artist, placing them in the context of the times in which they were created / worked, the family they grew up in, the political and social environment.

Continue reading “Great Art Explained” at Acrista Cafe.

Over the past few years, I have observed with sadness and weariness that the efforts I make on a daily basis to maintain the Facebook page fall far short of the desired results, needed for me to function as a freelance artist.

As a person, who does almost everything by myself, this means I spend a huge amount of time, energy and mental resources figuring out “what to post each day” to keep the page “alive”. I invest in expensive art products, photo sessions, video scripts, video shooting, video editing, planning posts, writing texts for them… And all this only reaches my top 10 fans (thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support ), out of all the 20K that have liked and/or followed my page, because that’s how the algorithm “works”.

Continue reading Out of the Matrix at Acrista Cafe.

Acrista Art Calendar 2024 is now in pre-sale! It turned out to be a real little art jewel, as it was intended.

As I have mentioned more than once, producing a quality elegant product is not an easy task. That’s why we create calendars with my paintings every few years :).

This time we started already in July with work on the concept, the selection of paintings, the choice of the font for the calendar and on the design, we continued in August with the selection of paper and creating a sample, for a visualisation of how the calendar will look, in September we received offers from printing houses and discussed what kind of packaging we can use… and here we are, it’s almost the end of October and we’re getting ready to go to press, and then it’ll be time to send out and bring joy.

Continue reading Acrista Art Calendar 2024 is now available at Acrista Cafe.

Those of you who follow my work may know, that this March marks 20 years since I created the website acrista.com and the Acrista Art brand was born. The first half of this period I spent mastering the soft pastels as a material and the artist who greatly influenced me during this time and was a sort of virtual mentor for me, was the pastelist Harley Brown.

I came across him after subscribing to International Artist magazine, where Harley had regular articles, sharing wisdom on the artist’s life and priceless practical advices on the creative process.

Continue reading Harley Brown – soft pastel artist at Acrista Cafe.

“The thing we label as talent is not a single ability. It is a complex mixture of motive, curiosity, receptivity, intelligence, sensitivity, good teaching, perseverance, timing, sheer luck, and countless other things.”

“Serious painting is not something that can be learned casually. You must be willing to sacrifice many other things.”

“I regard my disasters as invitations to learn more.”

“Art happens in the mind of the person seeing them.”

“Don’t reject difficult ideas simply because you fail to grasp them immediately. Put them on hold until you do, then decide.

Continue reading Quotes from “Alla Prima”, Richard Schmid at Acrista Cafe.

Scandinavian interiors are known for their simplicity and lightness.

The selection of artworks in them also reflects this trend – mostly black and white photographs, graphics and prints, often behind glass, with light frames, arranged in gallery walls.

However, today’s article is dedicated to the wooden shelves for arranging pictures, which are so popular in Scandinavian interiors.

They are offered under a variety of names: art shelves, skirting boards, shelves or picture/photo stands. More importantly, they can be used in almost all rooms in the home (and why not the office), and allow arranging not only pictures and photographs, but also small decorative objects: miniature flower pots, cards, plastics, candles, lighting.

Continue reading How to arrange artwork on scandi shelves at Acrista Cafe.

Every time we have an occasion to give joy, we are looking for an idea for an original gift that is special, non-standard, memorable. For me, a painting can be all these things, and at the same time bring a unique emotion and a personal message. It can become a colorful accent in the interior, be it in the home or the office.

Give yourself a gift

It very often happens that clients come to my studio wanting to purchase a painting as a gift… to themselves. These moments are indescribably satisfying for me as an artist.

Continue reading Choosing an artwork as a gift? Always a wonderful idea. at Acrista Cafe.

An inevitable part of arranging paintings is their correct lighting.

Wether an artwork needs directed lighting depends on the availability of enough daylight, and its direction. Sometimes it is perfectly enough to emphasise the colours and the details in the painting. But in most cases our homes and offices lack enough lighting for this purpose, and even more rarely hits internal spaces like the hallways for example, where we often exhibit paintings as well. And, if in the evening you would like the paintings to continue to be artistic accents, you have to consider having them lighted, and on a separate switch.

Continue reading How to choose a right lighting for artworks at Acrista Cafe.

The artworks I create for a specific occasion (anniversary, new home, birthday, wedding etc.) or for a specific premise (home or office), as requested by a client, I call commissions.

Let me make two very important clarifications – in my practice painting commissions are not portraits of real people made from reference photo (I explicitly don’t do such things), and they are also not copies of other paintings, mine or anyone else’s (if you want a copy of a particular painting of mine – you can always order a Limited Edition Print).

Over the years I have various cases of commissioned artworks – sometimes the interior design gravitated around a larger painting, that is the focus point and acts as a central piece in the interior.

Continue reading Commissioned artwork – the artistic challenge at Acrista Cafe.

In a search for more depth, contemplativeness and focus, and generally a slower and more aware lifestyle, this year everything seems to be happening more slowly with me, somehow inertly and less „visibly“. In these times I am working on two really long and slow projects…

1. A total redesign of the acrista.com website: the aim is for the site to become an actual online gallery, where you could directly purchase original artworks or order prints, and have them delivered anywhere you want. You will be able to log in to your personal account and track your orders, your cumulative discount and lots more.

Continue reading Acrista Art projects in progress at Acrista Cafe.

It’s been a while since I have been impressed so thoroughly by an artist – from the chosen medium (enamel paint), from developing technique by trial and error, combining several working places with a gallery, to market positioning, scope (huge canvases delivered worldwide), personal approach (he hand delivers all of his art in the UK) and experimenting with different mediums in addition to paintings – aluminum sculptures, art with cast resin blocks, enamel paint on carbon fiber…

Ed, who creates under the label Swarez, is absolutely self-thought and although he’s often told that ‘this can be painted by my five year old child too’ and ‘he’s not an artist’ with such abstractions, his story is so inspiring that I read thoroughly every page of his website and watched all available video materials on his Youtube channel.

Continue reading Swarez Art at Acrista Cafe.

I rarely write about mishaps because my focus is on beautiful and creative things, but this time I am going to share an experience for my colleagues (and not only).

The story in brief: I had an order from an international customer for an original painting 80 x 80 cm. To transport the painting to Spain I trusted (as I have done in the past) to Speedy. They lost the shipment somewhere along the way.

The story in details:

• the painting was commissioned by my customers in Barcelona and I started working on it in September 2018
• I finished it at the end of 2018, but I wanted to avoid the Christmas hustle so I decided to send it after the New Year
• on January 11ththe local Speedy courier came to pick it up: with a travel abroad certificate and two invoices to the customer
• a brief side note: for Bulgaria I have been using Econt for years (and I am very happy with their service) and I fill in my bills of landing by myself.

Continue reading About a lost painting at Acrista Cafe.

Creating on a large scale is starting to fascinate me more and more lately, so I decided to share some documentaries and interviews with the great architects of our time.
I was so inspired by Frank Gehry, that I might read Ayn Rand’s novel “The Fountainhead” again.

Continue reading “Frank Gehry: Jump into the Unknown” at Acrista Cafe.

Recently, I often wonder why when people quote an excerpt from a book or poem, they almost always indicate the author, but with paintings (respectively photographs) they have no attitude that it is necessary to do so. Probably because they are “on the Internet”?

And this is not at all about the wild and wanton use of the images – over the years friends have informed me that my painting has been used without permission for example as a pattern for a tapestry, or copied one-to-one and for sale, or used in a rendering of interior or in the logo of some apocryphal site.

Continue reading Please, give credit to the artists at Acrista Cafe.

Recently I came upon some documentaries by Bloomberg on modern artists that create on a huge scale. I was truly fascinated and inspired!
the series are nearly sixty, every video is approximately 25 minutes long.

P.S. After I watched nearly 2/3 of the documentaries, I thought:
– never comment / judge / reject modern art before you know details on the concept behind it
– dream big! dream beyond your own dreams! and in general – don’t stop dreaming!

Continue reading “Brilliant Ideas” modern art documentaries at Acrista Cafe.

*Images copyright belongs to the rightful owners

It’s been a while since I wrote a post in the Art category, so today I would like to share not one but three artists. They create very diverse art, but all of them impressed me with their exquisiteness and love for the detail.
I would love to own them in my house some day 😉

The floral fairy-tales of Vanessa Hogge:

the tender watercolors of Yuko Nagayama:

The epic sculptures of Kris Kuksi:

Continue reading Exquisite pieces of art at Acrista Cafe.

Every exhibition has a story, just like every painting in it.

The story of “Delicate and Passionate” began in December 2014 when the British gallery owner Andrew Hillier contacted me with an invitation to work together in his new gallery, where I was going to exhibit next to artists like Vladimir Volegov, Andre Kohn, Atroshenko. During our discussions, the vision of the desired collection of paintings gradually started to take shape – oil canvases with more delicate stories and ones of the more passionate flamenco series.

Alas, the joint project with the gallery did not come to fruition due to Andrew’s deteriorating health, but the idea of the collection of paintings developed into the idea for an exhibition. 

Continue reading The story behind the “Delicate and Passionate” exhibition at Acrista Cafe.

Every now and then I need to visualize ideas for arranging paintings and prints for clients, thus I decided to put together some suggestions for home and office arrangements. The pictures in this post are from Pinterest and the rights belong to the respective authors.

A classic mounting of an artwork in the living room, above the couch. a common mistake is to place the painting too high on the wall. The height of the artwork should always be at the eye level when the person is standing.

Аrtworks with different sizes which are aligned at the lower edge.

Continue reading How to arrange paintings at Acrista Cafe.

and here are some artists studios – some of which are brutal…

Continue reading Art documentaries at Acrista Cafe.

photo source

I have been following the articles of brainpickings.org for a while now and a few days ago, while going through the saved-for-later stuff, I found a true treasure: the speech of Teresita Fernandez, a New York based artist, at Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of the Arts.

Very few things manage to impress me lately – maybe because of the immense amount of information around us, offering too little meaningful content, but the words of Teresita touched me, and inspired me, and are a source of true wisdom, not only for artists, but for any human being.

Continue reading Teresita Fernandez Commencement Speech at Acrista Cafe.

Probably one of the most difficult and controversial things in art is setting its price. It’s not an accident that the emerging artists often ask gallery owners, art marketing specialists and established artists how to set the price of their artworks. there are different factors forming this price, but overall they can be reduced to several general ones. As I meet with very different opinions, questions and statements about the artworks’ price, I would like to share some thoughts on the topic:

“This is too expensive”

One of the most common responses of (let’s tentatively call them) art viewers – they usually are not true buyers – is “this is too expensive”.

Continue reading On artwork pricing at Acrista Cafe.

For centuries and for many reasons women artists stayed anonymous, which in time led to the ridiculous assumption that women are not as good artists as men, that is why they are not as famous. More thoughts and interesting facts on the matter – in the documentary on the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington.

Continue reading Museum of Women in the Arts at Acrista Cafe.

Continue reading “Art is not work; it’s playtime” at Acrista Cafe.

Daniel Sroka: Surviving as an artist in a bad economy >>

Lori Woodward Simons: Freedom vs.

Continue reading To be or not to be… at Acrista Cafe.