After the Last Bell (2026) Original Mixed-media Painting by Liubov Samoilova

A dreamy contemporary landscape filled with blooming lilacs, glowing windows and a luminous turquoise path leading into the night.
This painting was inspired by a memory from my school years. In a small town where I grew up, my classmates and I walked through the town park after the Last Bell ceremony. It was late evening, almost night. In the distance stood the old school building, while flowering lilacs and bird cherry trees were illuminated by the warm glow of street lamps.
No photographs of that evening remain. What stayed with me was the atmosphere — the extraordinary beauty of the flowering trees, the evening light, and the feeling of youth and possibility.
Years later, I recreated the scene as it exists in my memory. It is not intended as an exact depiction of a particular place, but rather as a memory transformed into a dreamlike spring landscape.
The turquoise path leads the eye towards the softly illuminated building, surrounded by masses of pink, violet, purple and blue flowers. The vivid turquoise contrasts with the lilac and magenta tones, creating an almost magical nocturnal atmosphere.
The artwork is created in a mixed media technique on canvas. The canvas was first covered with textured paste, and I deliberately preserved the uneven relief of the surface. Transparent and semi-transparent acrylic layers were then applied, followed by thin oil glazes on the foreground.
The combination of texture, translucent colour and oil glazing gives the surface depth and a subtle luminous quality.
An original artwork about lilacs, spring night, memory and the feeling of youth that remains with us long after the moment itself has disappeared.

Materials used:

Canvas on cardboard, texture paste, acrylic paints, oil paints

Details:

• Mixed-media painting on Canvas
• One of a kind artwork
• Size: 40 x 40 x 0.3cm (unframed) / 40 x 38cm (actual image size)
• Signed on the front
• Style: Impressionistic
• Subject: Landscapes, sea and sky