“The shape of perception” (2026) Original Oil Painting by Alena Panchishin

We never see the world exactly as it is. Every experience, memory, and emotion becomes a lens through which reality is quietly transformed. In this painting, water—my recurring subject—becomes a metaphor for something universal: the same surface appears different when viewed through layers of glass, just as every person perceives the world through their own unique perspective.

The composition is inspired by the visual language of glass blocks, where light bends, reflections shift, and familiar forms dissolve into new rhythms. The water itself remains unchanged, yet each section reveals a different version of it, suggesting that truth is never singular but experienced individually.

Painted in expressive layers of oil, this work invites the viewer to slow down and contemplate how perception shapes reality.

Materials used:

Oil paints

Details:

• Oil painting on Canvas
• One of a kind artwork
• Size: 150 x 100 x 3.5cm (unframed) / 150 x 100cm (actual image size)
• Ready to hang
• Signed on the back
• Style: Photorealistic
• Subject: Landscapes, sea and sky