Chapter 06
Higher Ground
Not every journey leads farther.
Some lead higher.
There came a moment when the map stopped mattering.
I wasn't looking for another destination anymore. I was learning how to build one.
Higher Gound is a collection of places, projects and quiet rituals that slowly changed the way I see the world.
Not by taking me farther.
By taking me higher.
Not every memory becomes a photograph. Some become a scent. Some return every summer. Some simply keep grazing, long after you've gone.
01 — 04Nothing extraordinary happened up there.
The weather changed. The light moved.
I kept walking.
Looking back, I think that's exactly why I remember it.
The southern slope of Aibga Ridge, Western Caucasus.
Painted from memory after a series of hikes through the alpine meadows above Sochi.
The process behind Southern Slope — mostly exploring the trail, following the light.
05 — 07"I thought I was travelling through the world. Looking back, the world was travelling through me."
— From the studio journal
Between cities, between versions of myself — passing through became its own kind of staying.
08 — 11Some landscapes rise through mountains.
Others rise through stone.
Painted after travelling through the Australian outback.
The landscape felt almost untouched by time. Massive granite boulders, burnt earth and an immense blue sky made distance feel physical.
Every painting begins long before the first brushstroke.
15 — 18
The first green after the outback never looks ordinary again
Oil on canvas. 70*90cm
Amed
90*120cm. Oil on canvas.
2022
The ridge at dusk — paint, glass, sketch, silence. Everything I needed was already there.
19 — 22Selected Works
Atlantic coast
Komodo
Komodo Bay
Pandanus
Middle Island · 100 × 120 cm · Oil on canvas · 2023
Лудщк
Sail
The Red Centre
100 × 120 cm · Oil on canvas
What stays is not always the view.
