•》》Iga | Igayah.Art《《•

"A ship in a harbour is safe but that is not what ships are built for" - John A Shedd For me traveling is such an important part of living. Apart from art, I have always tried to make it my priority. Getting out of your nest - to visit new places, get to know different cultures, get inspired, experience things that would never have happened to you in the comfort of your own home/city/country/continent. I am so grateful that I got to see already so many different parts of the world, but at the same time I feel like I have only touched the surface of getting to know it - it's a lifetime project that I want to continue as long as I have the energy for 😌 What traveling means for you? What is the one place that you really liked visiting? 》•《 Africa - Morocco 2023 - Sahara, Merzouga Europe - Croatia 2021 - Split Asia - Philippines 2022 - Kawasan Falls America - United States 2018 - Grand Canyon 》•《 #naturelover #travelingartist #travellandmarks #nomadartist #nomad #traveler #traveling #nomadlifestyle #travel #travelphotography #travelgram #travelingtheworld

“Is freedom anything else than the right to live as we wish? Nothing else.” - Epictetus

It's high time to start introducing UV stuff to my feed! I've been experimenting with UV art and body paint for almost 3 years now and it's very present in my creative process and expression, but somehow I rarely posted about it on my feed (you could see more in stories perhaps, like 90% of the content I share never goes further than there). So here it goes : here is the exact moment when it was my first time trying out the UV waterpen that looked almost transparent on the skin but glew very bright in the UV light. We were going to @misapsicodelika party where I would decorate people's faces (also for the first time at the party). It was in the year 2024 - the time when I lived for a bit in Barcelona and spent time with other creatives that also showed me some inspiring materials! Special thanks here goes to @le_op.art who not only was a great inspiration but also lent me some paint and markers to try it out. If it wasn't for her, my painting Pajaro Poderoso that was exhibited in @meammuseum wouldn't have the UV version at all, as I was adding the glowy accents one of the last nights before taking it to the museum, and using the paint that she lent me. *No A/I or edits (other than removing the background 💃) were used here TBC!

What happened over the past weekend truly felt like a dream coming true. I’ve been working as a professional artist for over 10 years now, yet rarely have I felt so fulfilled as I did while live painting during the first edition of the Venus Rising festival. Painting from life has always been my thing. Since 2014, I’ve been documenting places I visit through visual diaries - stopping, observing, listening, and fully immersing myself in the present moment. It’s a form of meditation that I have practiced long before I even knew what meditation is about. Taking this experience into a large-scale live painting, surrounded by music and people, felt like a perfect extension to what I have already been doing 🎨 What made it even more special was the interaction with the audience. People kept coming back to check the progress of the painting, looking for themselves and their friends inside it. Children were especially curious - sometimes I even handed them the brush so they could leave a small mark on the artwork themselves 👶 During the day, the painting looked like a regular acrylic landscape painting but once the sun went down, I turned on the UV lights and revealed another layer using fluorescent paints - almost like a second, night version of the same world 🌌✨🎨 I felt incredibly present, aligned, and connected to what I was doing and I know that this is the path I truly want to take in my further art/career path. Huge huge thanks to @venus_rising_festival for having me, @renesanspolska for providing the materials and PAD RES that made this project possible.

[ENG below] Cześć, tu Iga Oliwiak 'Igayah' 👩‍🎨 Już w piątek, podczas @venus_rising_festival będę malować wielkoformatowy obraz inspirowany atmosferą wydarzenia - będzie to połączenie pejzazu, muzyki i całej energii wokół 🌀 Będę pracować z materiałami od firmy @renesanspolska , której bardzo dziekujemy za pomoc w realizacji tego projektu. Wpadajcie 1 i 2 maja do Dolic, żeby zobaczyć, jak taki obraz powstaje na żywo 🎨✨️ [ENG] Hi, it's Iga Oliwiak 'Igayah' 👩‍🎨 This Friday, during the Venus Rising festival, I’ll be painting a large-scale piece inspired by the atmosphere of the event - a combination of landscape, music, and the energy from all around. I’ll be working with materials from Renesans Polska, who we’d like to thank for supporting this project. Join us on May 1–2 in Dolice to see how a painting like this comes to life 💛 #livepainting #igayahart #livepaintingevent #livepaintingartist

On the second day I painted the Tiny House (one I currently live in and writing from now!) again - It's unpleasant outside, rather cold and windy, but in the tiny glass house I can paint like I am outside but without feeling the wind and with higher temperature ✨️ I find it extremely valuable to observe (and paint) the same Subject in different light/weather/season conditions and wanted to make these as a collection - same size, same composition. Let's see how many I'll make! I am also experimenting with techniques - today I painted only with acrylics while two previous knes were done with Hydr-Oils - both using materials from @renesanspolska that I am very grateful to have received as a gift. Not that fun part: After 2h session of painting (the painting itself took 1.5h, but with preparation, recording (as I made a whole movie process that please I hope not to forget about, edit and share 🤞) and breaks for stretching and breathe my back suffered so much that the pain only came away in the evening, after a lot of movement/stretching/gym and massage chairs available there. I feel devastated that despite a lot of will and power my body refuses physically, and I still have commercial work to finish (luckily I got the deadline extended from today but still things are waiting to be finished). Thank you for reading (I don't know how many people actually do, I am aware that most won't even see this but it's also a form of documentation for me so why not sharing either :) Cheers 🖤 @pleinairpril @warriorpainters #pleinairpril2026 #igayahpleinair #landscapeart

Hello friends! I'm posting on stories but I get questions where do I live now so I thought I'd share a glimpse of how my life looks like lately! I stay in Netherlands in a Tiny House in the forest with my beloved partner @benefino . It's a marvelous place and a great stop for a couple of months break in my nomadic journey (most likely until July but let's see!) I focus on work a lot, spending many hours in a tiny glass house that became my painting studio. It's a huge breakthrough for me as I have never painted as many big pieces (also commercial fantasy illustrations), not only in such a short time, but ever! I am surrounded by nature, I learn to recognize the birds and plants around, I connect with the land like never before. I was already a huge nature enthusiast earlier, but living in the forest and being able to observe it literally everyday is a whole new level and I am not sure if I'll ever want to go back to live in a city!

#PleinAirpril has started! For the first day I am painting my current home - a tiny house in the Dutch forest. It is a but longer stop in my nomadic journey - I am here to accompany my beloved partner, but I am also focusing on work a lot! It is a truly dream place to be and I am extremely grateful for everything. I chose to paint the exact same composition as I did in January so I have the collection of the square at different times of the day and year ✨️ This year I want to focus on painting bigger pieces since I have the space to store the paints and panels/canvases in a contrary to a nomad traveling life where I could only do small formats. I still will do some traveling - I'll be visiting Eindhoven for @tad.playgrounds , then Berlin and coming back to my hometown in Poland, as each year. Who else is doing the challenge? ✨️ @pleinairpril @warriorpainters #igayahpleinair #oilpainting #pleinairpril2026 #pleinairpainting

And like the ghost she disappeared in the void ~ A day out to Den Haag with my @maria.anna.hes @lomo.moments 🖤 one of those worth remembering ✨️

Happiest of birthdays to one of the most important humans in my life - my dear soul sister @holistic_ditto 💓💓 They say it’s difficult to find true friendships later in life, but I think it’s quite the opposite - when you’re open, you meet the people who match who you are now the most. I met Paula only three years ago and we instantly connected. Three months later I was already landing in Brazil to visit her. She’s the reason I went there. She’s the reason I went and stayed Barcelona too! Here is a compilation of some of the best moments - from my hometown in Poland to her hometown in Brazil 🇧🇷 I miss you so much!! I hope there are many more ahead of us ✨️ Muito obrigada por estar na minha vida 💞

Another throwback to a very important moment that happened in Barcelona in 2024 - I still get chills when I come back to that day! Quote from my diary: "Friday 2.02 marks the day when my accumulator of a stopped car sparks again and is pushed to keep going on it's own - but on this day it felt like it's been pushed from a hill with a really high speed, to eventually reach the straight road and slow down a bit, but at least keeping on going (I hope that's what's going to happen!). After a very inspiring time of these past days, through new places, new connections, new ideas - I got the long awaited motivation to restart the engine. I painted and painted, enjoying every single stroke, with additional accompany of my recently favourite music, being able to dive deep in a sea of creativity and flow, forgetting about the surface above - I've felt so good. Maybe all in all everything indeed forms into something when you do not force or pressure things - something I'm facing (and unfortunately fighting, bouncing off the wall so often) during the past month after my arrival to Barcelona. But I see a lot of light and hope now 🖤☀️✨️" The burnout had been a very serious issue for me, for years I didn't have the same motivation for painting (I still don't have it as before, but it definirely came back and I feel the joy in creation again). What you can see here is a self portrait when I started to use a chisel knife - the technique of impasto that I later used in other paintings like Pajaro Poderoso and Bloom of Infinity ✨️ Did you also experience such sudden spark after being burnout? Do you remember that moment?

One year ago together with @art_you_are we did a live painting at the concert jam that happened in @krzywygryf ! It was an absolutely spontaneous idea that came up just the night before, while casually going to another concert. I love such initiatives - it's not only a fun experience but also creating new opportunities and opening new doors. Live painting is something I've been doing forever and registering an event on the canvas is not only an extraordinary thing to experience for an artist, for the curious people around but the moment is saved in the form of artwork that can be exhibited or bought (which happened in this case, we sold both of the canvases that night!). I am very open to more of such expefiencds, so if you are interested in having your event registered in a form of art, contact me or visit igayah.art/livepainting to find out more ✨️