I’ve been asked by many people about my “Variables” series, so perhaps it’s appropriate to make a bulk post, as there’s a substantial thing to talk about:

1. What is the “Variables” series?

The “Variables” is the series of mixed media paintings I’ve done in 2020 on primed paper (160g/m2). There are eight big pieces, 29 x 42 cm each, and additional two small pieces 17 x 25 cm that I consider bonus-artworks only, because they appeared additionally to the whole process. There are also a few works that I didn’t include in the original series but they bear the title of “Variable” + a respectable ordinal number.

The “Variables” series, 29 x 42 cm:

Bonus “Variables” - 2 artworks, 17 x 25  cm:

Example of the “Variable” not included in the series (29 x 42 cm):

Variable XI

2. Technique and style

The main core of the “Variables” series is monotype, that allowed me to achieve organic-looking layers of texture. For this I used printing plates, printing paint, ink and water. I prepared the plates without etching, pure surface painting only + wiping and cleaning the areas I didn’t want to cover.

The next phase was adding marks, ink mostly, but here and there can be also found those made by oil stick and acrylic paint. In this stage I established the overall composition and assessed the direction in which the painting should progress.

In the third phase I used only water with a variety of tools: sponges, tissues, traditional nib-pens, sharpened wooden sticks and needles to create the thinnest lines possible. It was a reversed painting, so to speak, as water dilutes the printing paint I use. Keeping in mind the negative space, I erased the parts of the composition I found distracting, revealed the details and emphasized the texture. Water markings, as it were, make the surface look even more organic and the primed paper is protected enough from damage. For this I prepared at least two layers of gesso to make a smooth, plain and resistant layer easy to work with and easy to clean.

3. Inspiration

I find the biggest inspiration in nature but not on Earth. My passion for astronomy and astrophysics encourages and motivates me to take part in variety of research projects and scientific surveys. A couple of years ago I participated in VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) public survey, that was the combined project of European Southern Observatory and Millennium Astrophysics Institute.

In short: it was about mapping the central region of the Milky Way, that we call the “bulge”, in near infrared light. One of the key goals of the VVV Survey was to identify new variable stars, i.e. stars whose brightness changes periodically with time. Many of those stars’ types expand and contract, such as RR Lyrae, Cepheids or Miras. They “pulsate” only during a very specific phase of their evolution, corresponding to a specific internal stratification, that we understand and are able to model with precision. Once we identify one of these variables, we can predict what is their real luminosity, their mass and their age. Some variables have similar light curves, that are not easy to tell apart with automatized software. In addition, some variables have light curves similar to those of binary stars. The latter do not change their individual luminosity, but the total light we see might change because they periodically eclipse each other. That’s why we, humans, imperfect as we happen to be, were involved in manual classification.

As a participant of this survey in 6 years I (among many others) classified hundreds of celestial points based on data received from ESO VISTA 4.1 m diameter IR telescope. Those results later on were about to be combined with data from MACHO, OGLE, EROS, VST, SPITZER, HST, CHANDRA, INTEGRAL, and ALMA for a complete understanding of the variable sources in the inner Milky Way.

Graphic data I received from ESO inspired me to create the specific art with the variable stars in mind. It were mostly graphs that showed how the period and the shape of star luminosity (or brightness) change versus time, also known as light curve.

These are the examples of how the data that inspired me looked like:

Images Credit: VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) scientific survey, European Southern Observatory

As you see above, these data chunks were pretty regular most of the time and therefore the classification seemed rather routine-oriented. But if one keeps in mind that behind each graph lied a distant point in space that now we are able to watch and describe, their perspective changes. It’s astonishing how simple graphic representation may show a detailed insight in the star’s properties, “habits” and history. If this is not inspiring enough, I don’t know what is.

4. Summary

It wasn’t the first time when a pure scientific research inspired my art, but it was the very first time when I painted a large series of works having such topic on my mind. In my series you may find an echo of the light curves, accretion disks, nebulae and interstellar dust. Not only the imprint of the distant star but also its neighborhood and afterimage, its moods, paths and rotation speed; the whole cluster of possibilities - relative and powerful. And each star has its own future, as even they, ageless and magnificent, are neither forever stable, nor immortal. They are variable, just like human beings.