Dunavi
Studio
Ilona Dunavi — Painter, Lisbon
Paintings that take their time.
Original paintings, numbered prints and a few commissions a year — made slowly, in daylight, in a converted Lisbon bakery.
38
Exhibitions
22
Countries collected
02
Manifesto
I paint the quiet between weathers — salt drying on a wall, fog leaving the river.
Each canvas is built from thin layers over many weeks, so it keeps shifting as the light in your room does. Nothing here is rushed, and nothing is made twice.
— Ilona Dunavi
03
Series
Salt Studies, 2024 — ongoing
Begun on the walls of the old bakery, where salt from the river air blooms through the plaster every winter. Twelve canvases so far, each one started with a single horizon line.
04
Index of works
Available works & editions
All works
Paintings
Works on Paper
Prints
Price
Salt Study I
Salt Studies
€7,400
Available
Winter Field
Field Notes
Private collection
Sold
Tide Memory
Salt Studies
€4,900
Reserved
Ochre Afternoon
Field Notes
€1,850
Available
Weathered Shore
Salt Studies
Private collection
Sold
Field Lines
Field Notes
€380
Available
Low Water
Salt Studies
€520
Available
Rust Weather
Iron Series
€1,200
Available
Madder No. 4
Madder
€6,200
Available
Harbour, Late
Madder
Private collection
Sold
Burnt Wall
Iron Series
€450
Reserved
Verdigris
Madder
€1,650
Available
05
Sketchbook
Before the canvas, the sketchbook.
Ten pocket books a year, mostly pencil and ink. A few pages become paintings; the best of the rest are released twice a year as small, signed works on paper.
06
Exhibitions & press
Shown & written about
07
The studio table
What’s on the desk this week
08
Journal
Notes from the studio
Materials
·
7 min read
Why I grind my own madder lake
Tube reds are reliable and flat. The red I make by hand from madder root is neither — and that is exactly why it stays on my palette.
Process
·
5 min read
Salt Studies IX–XII: notes from a slow week
Four canvases, one week of sea fog and the decision to stop sooner than I wanted to.
Exhibitions
·
6 min read
Hanging ‘Low Water’ at Galeria Ribeira
Fourteen works, two days, one spirit level and a long conversation about where the eye should rest.
Bring a painting home.
Tell us about your wall, your light and the work you keep coming back to. We reply within two working days — no pressure, ever.