Liudmila Kondakova

There is something to be said about this tough economy. It makes us do more "creative" things without spending. Last night, hubby & I decided to walk around the Ghirardelli square area in San Francisco and happened to enter the Martin Lawrence Galleries.

"Rome"

The reason we entered this art gallery was because they were featuring "Marc Chagall", one of the artists I like. Although I enjoyed looking at the artwork by Chagall, it was the painting of a new artist to me that really caught my attention. Her name is Liudmila Kondakova. According to the information about her there, she was born in Russia in 1956, and moved to the United States in 1991 and is a current resident artist in the Bay Area! Her paintings are mostly of European cities : Rome, Paris, Prague, etc, so she is considered an international artist!

What makes her paintings so mesmerizing is the technique she uses. The time of day of most of the paintings we liked are "dusk". The gallery director brought us to a small room and brought in the painting. A spotlight was placed on the painting and the lights were slowly dimmed. What beauty we experienced. The background of the painting dimmed, as if the sun was slowly setting, but the lamp posts, reflection on the water, "moon" got brighter! It was a really beautiful effect! The first painting was the one she used to demonstrate this effect, but the second painting was also there and was the one I really wanted. Fingers crossed that the economy improves so that I can get one of her paintings "without guilt"! (first 3 photos courtesy of this site)


"Paris Rooftops at Night"

"Prague"
Succeeding photos courtesy of this site

"Santa Maria della Salute"

"Le Pont Neuf"

"Pont Alexandre"

"Paris Evening"

"Quai de Conti"

“City By The Bay”

“Golden Gate”

San Francisco scenes courtesy of this site.

The "Martin Lawrence Galleries" is located at 747 Beach Street, San Francisco CA 94109.