View of Antibes (2025)Oil painting
by Nikifor Swiristuhin

I painted this view as if breathing it in with my whole body. At the beginning of December, I was painting en plein air in Nice, and Antibes did not reveal itself to me at once — first there were the trees, their trunks and branches, heavy with color and movement. I deliberately placed them at the edges, like stage wings, so that the viewer could enter the space of the painting the same way I did, stepping into the shade and then seeing the sea beyond.

My brushstrokes are thick and impatient — I did not want to smooth reality. The southern light is far too alive to be neat. The foliage overhead trembles with all colors at once: ochres, greens, blues, sudden flashes of red. I painted it the way it sounded inside me — loud, pulsing, almost hot.

Beyond the trees, Antibes opens up — bright, built of stone and sun. The houses seem to grow out of the shore, warm and solid, yet at the same time dissolving into the air. I avoided detailing; what mattered to me was preserving the feeling of a city that lives by the water and breathes the sea.

The sea here is a conversation of its own. I gave it movement, made it uneven and shimmering. Water is never calm for long, and I do not believe in smooth surfaces. In every brushstroke there is wind, the reflection of the sky, an inner restlessness.

This painting is not just a view of Antibes. It is my state at that moment: a warm December day, salty air, tired hands, and the joy of knowing that the world before me was too beautiful to remain silent. I painted quickly, honestly, directly — the way I felt.

Materials used:

Oil paints.

Details:

• Oil painting on Canvas
• One of a kind artwork
• Size: 70 x 50 x 2cm (unframed) / 70 x 50cm (actual image size)
• Ready to hang
• Signed on the front
• Style: Impressionistic
• Subject: Landscapes, sea and sky

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