gjurgjovden is a celebration of nature for various peoples of macedonia. for ethnic macedonians, although the day bears a christian name, the traditions practiced stem from our pagan past. this illust depicts the tradition of young girls swinging and singing songs about crushes under a fruit bearing tree. cleavers are stuck on their clothes, so they stick to each other like the grass sticks to them. customs vary from region to region, so here i specifically focused on maleshevija, eastern macedonia, as well as maleshevski traditional dress.
gjurgjovden is about love as much as it's about nature to me. i celebrated it with my late grandmother, with whom i shared a name. i painted this last year, during the 40 day period of mourning after she died. the krpa here is like the one she gave me, that her mother made.
2 plein air gouache paintings I did for a class. They were supposed to be about 30 minutes each, though I think the second one took closer to 40 minutes.
It wasn’t my first time using gouache, but I’m also generally not a big fan of it, nor am I comfortable in it so idk if I’ll be doing this again lol.
I’m not sure why, but I have a tendency to look up when I’m trying to find something to paint, that’s why the first one is the tip of trees and the second one is someone’s roof and their front yard tree.