Summer shadows of Menton. (2024)Oil painting
by Nikifor Swiristuhin

I painted “Summer Shadows of Menton” as a memory of midday, when the sun no longer dazzles but begins to speak softly with stone and plaster. These houses are not merely architecture to me; they are living forms of the town itself—warmed by light, heavy with heat, and generous in color. I worked with thick, textured paint, almost sculpting the surface, so that every brushstroke could breathe, like the old streets of Menton breathing in summer.

The reds and ochres of the roofs hold the warmth of the sun, while the blues and greens of the shadows offer shelter and calm, hiding beneath arches and in narrow passages. I wanted to show how light breaks and bends across uneven facades, how shadow is not simply the absence of light, but a force with its own rhythm and depth. The archways draw the eye inward—not just into the town, but into quiet and pause.

I did not paint Menton as a precise place on a map, but as it lives in my memory and feeling. Let the lines sway, let the buildings lean toward one another—this is how Menton felt to me: intimate, sun-soaked, and alive. This painting is about a summer that leaves its trace not on the skin, but in the soul, and about shadows without which light would lose its meaning.

Materials used:

Oil paints.

Details:

• Oil painting on Panel / Board / MDF
• One of a kind artwork
• Size: 26 x 36 x 0.3cm (unframed) / 26 x 36cm (actual image size)
• Ready to hang
• Signed on the front
• Style: Impressionistic
• Subject: Architecture and cityscapes

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