This weeks theme on illustration forum Illustration Friday is Passion  For me horses has been my big passion since I was a small girl. I started to ride in the local riding school in Vingåker when I was four years old and only wanted to ride the stables biggest horse, Swedish girl aka Flicka. I still remember the disappointment if I had to ride one of the small Shetlands ponies called Jolly and Polly. At 7 years old I got my first own pony/bestfriend, Ballerina, the cutest of the cutest welsh mountain ponies who stayed in the family for 17 years. Ballerina was just as novice as myself and so everything we learned we learned together. She had a heart of gold to say the least. After Ballerina came Mr Herbie, Pojken, Pikona och many more through the years. So I more or less grew up in the stable where we (big group of girls in the same age) did more but sometimes less horsey oriented activities. And every other weekend was spent at competitions. The passion for ...

Loren who loves nice, fresh and natural groceries has done some great research about Moscow's supermarkets and farmers markets since we moved here.  Danislovsky market is one of Moscow's oldest and biggest indoor markets and the best thing is that we only live 15 minutes away. Located on Mytnaya ul 74 with nearest metro station Tulskaya. Last Sunday Team Nikolovski did our premier exploration to this fresh products paradise. An explosion of colors from all the fruits and vegetables met us and the atmosphere was great. For me coming from Sweden this is very exotic as we don't have this kind of markets but also for Loren who has been living away from Macedonia for a long time. You can find more or less everything here not only fruit and veggies but also eggs, meat, fresh cheese and bread. Also babushkas selling homemade marmalade, jam, pickled vegetables and many other for me unknown products. An Colombian restaurant and a couple of interesting café´s with fresh products an...

Most of my illustrations are based on myself, my family or other people around me and the scenarios are either self experienced or heard of. Lately I have been asked to draw family portraits. A great privileged mission which is fun, scary and challenging in a great mix. I want to capture the family ( without being able to make it photo like) as well as the surroundings to make it a fun identification of that specific family. I will put together a collage of my family portraits I have done but for now I start to present an illustration I made while I was in Sweden in October. A great friend of mine ordered a portrait of her sweet family. It was a fun mission to try to find artifacts and details that makes the illustration to fit them and who they are. 

One new year resolution was to make the most out that we are living in Moscow. It is a lot to see and explore in and around this big city and most of it is unknown to me. A must see places in Moscow is Red Square with it's famous cathedral (Saint Basil) building with its colorful tops. Team Nikolovski finally made it here last weekend.  It was a grey but not so cold day. The Christmas music, decoration and lights were still in full bloom which felt a big strange as I feel very done with Christmas for this year. Mila got to go on the old fashion carousel before we had some nice soup and coffee in a café close by. Quick short facts   400 by 150 meters big square  Established in 15th Century Located in the heart of Moscow On its four side of the square you find Kremlin, GUM department store, State Historical museum and St Basil cathedral (centers of government, commerce, history & religion)  On the square you also find Lenin´s tomb a big grey granite mausoleu...

Yeah what to say?! Great inspiration to have a two year in the house indeed. Maybe one or two parents who recognizes the challenges of get out through the door. I hate winter and winter clothing. Please let it soon be spring ( we are expecting -22 in Moscow next week....)

It has been so hard to update something on the blog since we moved. Not because I don't have illustrations, thoughts or ideas but because I have too many ideas and not enough energy and time to put pen to paper. But now it is a new year and with that comes new years resolutions and a feeling of a new start. Right?! Happy New Year 2015! Team Nikolovski is back in Moscow after a long and relaxing winter vacation in Sweden (more about that in another post) Back in Moscow we have pretty wintery weather with snow but very mild so the snow is now as we speak turning into brown slosch very unpleasant for shoes and not so pretty. I never had chance to write about my first experience with Moscow and living here so here is a short summary of my thoughts before I moved connected to this illustration I made ages ago: I was pretty scared of Russia and Moscow before I move here (maybe I still am, who knows!!) coming from Scandinavia where something bad is written in media everyday about Ru...