Przeczytaj ten artykuł po polsku →
The story behind an atmospheric Polish oil painting
The Old Cross began with the unusual form of a weathered grave cross in Michniowiec. Its dark silhouette, the Bieszczady hills and the fading evening light became the starting point for a painting about a place whose landscape has outlasted much of the human world once present there.
The first reason I wanted to paint this subject was visual. The cross has an irregular, almost sculptural form that remains legible even when seen mainly as a dark silhouette. It could dominate the composition without requiring detailed description.
I placed it against the final band of sunset and deepened the greens and blue-greys of the surrounding hills. The intention was not to illustrate a historical event literally, but to create a quiet sense of duration, absence and the slow transformation of a place.
A grave cross in Michniowiec
Michniowiec lies close to the present Polish-Ukrainian border. Near its former Greek Catholic church are old cemeteries, roadside crosses and surviving examples of local stonework. Only a small number of the early grave crosses remain.
Before 1951, Michniowiec had been a predominantly Ukrainian village. The Polish-Soviet territorial exchange transferred this part of the Bieszczady region to Poland and brought another forced movement of population. The community connected with the older cemetery disappeared, while the church, crosses and graves remained within a changed landscape.
I was interested in this contrast: every grave once referred to one individual life, surrounded by relatives, work and ordinary daily concerns. Several decades later, much of that personal context is no longer recoverable. What remains is a physical object whose meaning can still be felt, even when the names and stories are no longer known.
The painting is not a reconstruction of the former village. It focuses on one remaining object and on the distance between the life once present around it and the silence of the landscape today.
From a travel film frame to an oil painting
The initial visual reference came from a frame in a Bieszczady travel film created by Wędrowne Motyle. I contacted the authors and received permission to use the material as a reference for the painting.
The film frame was only the starting structure. I changed the colour, light, tonal relationships and atmosphere so that the finished work would function as a painting rather than as a copy of a photographic image. The sunset was strengthened, the landscape simplified and the cross turned into the central visual weight of the composition.
Painting atmosphere without turning history into illustration
I did not want to explain the history through symbols added to the scene. The cross, the old graves and the darkened landscape already carried enough information.
The strongest contrast is between the nearly black structure of the cross and the narrow, warm opening on the horizon. The light does not remove the weight of the subject. It briefly touches its edges before the whole landscape enters evening.
The lower part of the painting remains cooler and less clearly defined. The graves merge with vegetation, while the hills extend beyond the cemetery. This allows the place to feel larger than the individual object without weakening the cross as the centre of the composition.
Diploma project and the Krzysztof Grzesiak Painting Competition
Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków
The Old Cross was painted in 2024 as part of my diploma project at the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. The project included paintings connected with old chapels, cemeteries, ruins and places where landscape and human history remain closely joined.
More information about my education and work can be found on the About the Artist page.
National competition selection
In 2024, the painting was selected for the II Krzysztof Grzesiak National Painting Competition in Lębork.
The competition and other exhibitions are listed on my Exhibitions & Press page.
The Old Cross painting — frequently asked questions
Where is the cross shown in the painting?
The motif comes from an old cemetery connected with the former Greek Catholic church in Michniowiec, a village in the Bieszczady Mountains near Poland’s border with Ukraine.
Was The Old Cross painted from a photograph?
The starting reference was a frame from a travel film by Wędrowne Motyle, used with their permission. The composition, colour, sunset and atmosphere were then substantially transformed in the painting.
Why is the landscape so dark?
The low light allows the grave cross to work as a strong silhouette. The dark landscape and narrow strip of sunset support the subject of time passing without turning the work into a literal historical illustration.
Was the painting exhibited?
Yes. It formed part of work connected with my 2024 diploma project and was selected for the II Krzysztof Grzesiak National Painting Competition in Lębork in 2024.
Sources and further context
Explore more paintings by Andrea Bocedi
View original landscapes, symbolic works and paintings connected with places in Poland, Italy and other parts of Europe.
