Iga.yah - Nomad Artist

•》TRAVELING AND PAINTING THE WORLD《•

•》Hi, I'm Igayah《•

I am an artist trying to break free of society's expectations and follow her own independent path. By sharing my work and thoughts, I want to inspire others to explore the wonders of our beautiful planet and pursue their passion for art, regardless whether it is for a hobby or a career.

Through the past 10 years I had been working as a professional artist in the entertainment industry - games, animation, comic books etc. (including projects and companies like Magic The Gathering, Loving Vincent, Stranger Comics, Twin Drums, Wooga) but now I am fulfilling the life of an independent artist, creating art inspired by whatever I encounter in life and trying to heal my relationship with art after years of burnout.

Join me on my journey where I share my adventures, knowledge about painting, traveling on your own, my mindset about living and whatever more I find worth sharing with you!

Find out more in About me section or visit my social media:

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•》Featured Post

10 years of travel outdoor painting with watercolor and gouache - setup, tips and a brief history

If you ask me - What is a one thing that you are really proud of ? I wouldn't hesitate long with the answer: it's keeping up with my...

Iga.yah

10 years of travel outdoor painting with watercolor and gouache - setup, tips and a brief history

If you ask me - What is a one thing that you are really proud of ? I wouldn't hesitate long with the answer: it's keeping up with my...

Travel painting

Jul 16, 20247 min read

10 Paintings in One Day Challenge - Original Paintings for Sale

A couple of years back, when I was still working at Wooga studio, I decided to challenge myself to paint 10 watercolor pieces in one single day. It turned into a day of a great focus, very structured creative flow, painting each piece one by one from the morning till evening. I have made a YouTube video where I show all of them and say more about the process, you can watch it here: All 10 original paintings are now available for purchase in my shop. Each piece is an original

Nov 18, 20251 min read

Wykład o malowaniu w podróży + warsztaty akwareli z gwaszem

Z okazji wystawy „Between the Reality & Fantasy” zapraszam Was na jednodniowe warsztaty malarskie, podczas których podzielę się swoją...

Aug 7, 20252 min read

[PL wersja w komentarzach]

Coincidence or Destiny?

June 18th 2026, Thursday around 7:00 AM, Tiny House, NL - Anniversary of our meeting

Exactly one year has passed since I met a being, so far the closest to my heart.

Someone who wants to be with me just as much as I want to be with him.
Someone who takes an active part in a deeper mutual understanding of one another.
Someone who makes my days better.
Someone who brings a smile to my face every single time I see him.
Who writes me poems.
Someone who supports me with all his being, does not cut my wings, but breathes into them and pats me on the back instead.

I am so immensely overjoyed that these series of coincidences on June 18th last year allowed our paths to cross.

I am 32 years old. A lot, a little?
But only just now (or maybe already?) have I actually come to know my “metapartner” - a partner on a metaphysical level.
A partner who makes me grow in strength, both mental and physical.
I am so deeply grateful that tears push into my eyes on their own.

Being here in the forest, writing this and watching the rising sun peek from behind the trees - I am happy.
And I am in this place, physically and mentally, precisely because of you.

There are so many cause-and-effect chains that caused this meeting to happen - including this one being there, painting and your friend that approached me so we couldn't meet.

And if it weren't for every single one of them (and there's no space here to write about them all) it might have never happened.

Because who knows? Is it a coincidence or a destiny?

We will probably never know, but today I celebrate this day and this whole year, as the one that turned my life 180 degrees around once again.
I love you, Kamil, the most in the whole galaxy❣️🍓

#lovestory

Here's another painting from Croatia called "The Storm is coming" - watercolor&gouache (+UV that I'll be revealing later!) on board.

The storm was really approaching closer and closer so it was a bit of a race to finish before it gets too close as we were at the very end of the shore and had to still come back to Pula (luckily by car!).

As you can see, the colors changed completely, from the bright sky to very dark, so painting is sort of a synthesis of different lights situations that happened over 1h of painting.

I'm super grateful to have been able to visit these beautiful nature sites, huge thank you to @patrikvlah for taking me there, I love meeting new friends on my way and live such unexpected adventures !

After Lovran I headed to Pula - which I already visited a long long time ago during vacation with my parents, but that was before I started to paint each place I visit!

The sunset today was one of the most spectacular ones I've ever seen, and neither photo nor the painting can show the true beauty of it. Watching it from the highest point in the Citadel was a blessing. There was also no one around.

They were closing the Citadel at 9, so I rushed down to still paint the other side of the view - the actual sunset. I'm again using the UV paint, which helps me a lot with mixing the right vivid colors. I am not sure though whether it'll stay very long on the paper, I may need to varnish the painting soon.

I am so happy to be traveling again, I feel so alive.
The music theme for this trip is soundtrack music by @instaborislav which I had an immense pleasure to meet yesterday. Only later on I realized that he's the one behind the music I listened to already as a kid, painting my first frame by frame animation in Microsoft Paint inspired by his music, I'm truly blown away and still cannot get over it. So I was walking around the old city listening to the tunes from Baldurs Gate and Divinity and felt like I was in the game myself.

I'm so grateful for everything 🖤

Expo Gamers was truly a blast - a trip to Croatia, beautiful sunny Mediterranean landscape, being able to share the topic that is truly important to me (Choosing Your Own Path), meeting other very inspiring people and additionaly the boat tour at the end 🛥☀️🏝🌊🥂

I am so happy I gained yet more experience of public speaking - which used to be extremely stressful for me in the past, but now it has gotten so much better, I actually felt good on the stage and I know this is something I want to do more of, definitely!

So if you know an event that you would see me a fit for presenting, teaching a workshop or doing a demo, let's talk 😌

I am very grateful I could come, thank you so much again @expo_gamers for having me 💖

1st day of @expogamers.cro was a blast ☀️ I'm so grateful to be back in this beautiful country, watch and paint the same colors I did couple of years ago but feeling so much more comfortable and confident with the technique.

The sunset sketch moment was one of the highlights definitely, overlooking at the bay where the conference is taking place (Opatija). But also being to step out of the conference and go to the beach is amazing (even if just for a quick sketch!)

Today's is special for many occasions and I'm so happy I could register it in all of those visual memories 🎨

Keep the fingers crossed so I don't loose my tongue tomorrow while speaking! 💃

I'm on my way to @expogamers.cro where I'll be doing portfolio workshop and a keynote talk! Here are some hints from both presentations, if you're attending the event you're welcome to join me there! Only thing is that for the workshop you need to register in advance (though you can also come to the door anyway, in case there's still place left).

See you there 👋

It is #MerMay so no better timing to come back to these Underwater Worlds and Bioluminescence pieces I painted for first editions of Hardcover collective artbook by @spiridude and @caurette_editions .

Taking part in the book alongside with some of the greatest artists in the industry @kimjunggius @daniela_uhlig @skadivore @geraldparel @evenmehlamundsen @ardinaryas @abigail_larson @martanael @pablocarpioart @nekroxiii @deharme @peterhanstyle @sergebirault @diegogisbertllorens and many many more that I didn't mention here (though you can see the full list at the end)
... was truly a dream coming true while I was still quite early on my own artistic path.

Even though the both pieces are years old already I still like to come back to them and remember the time of the free exploration of my personal works. Nowadays I find it very hard to sit by my computer and paint anything for myself, I limited digital painting only to the commissioned work as I prefer to spend my free time away from the computer screen.

I participated in first 3 books that are still available to buy through @caurette_editions and new editions have been released almost yearly with the newest one #Hardcover2026 being in the making. The submissiones are now closed for this one but you can stay tune to for the next ones to have a chance to be featured ✨️ Check them out if you're interested in an uncensored art ❤️‍🔥

Cheers from the forest 🏡
Igayah

My Tiny House painting collection is slowly growing ✨️

So far I’ve made five paintings, with the first one started back in January 🏡

I feel incredibly grateful to spend this time here and experience life in the forest.

What fascinates me most is observing how dramatically the same environment transforms. The atmosphere of the place can change completely depending on the hour, season, or weather.

Now, in spring, nature is growing thicker and wilder around the house. Or after rain, the wood becomes darker, leaving these beautiful visible traces of moisture on the walls.

This project became a great practice of observation - I honestly always wanted to create such collection but I have never stayed in a place long enough and with such an inspiring view to make it happen, so I am so happy to be able to finally do this.

I wish I could continue this series through the entire year, especially into autumn, but for now we’re only staying here until July. Maybe I’ll get the chance to come back and paint the autumn version too - I really hope so 🍂

To paint these, I use acrylics and hydr-oils gifted by @renesanspolska, as well as brushes from @artifyartsupplies - thank you so much for your support!

Super honored to be speaking at the upcoming Expo Gamers conference in Croatia!

My talk “Choosing Your Own Path” will be about building a creative career from a perspective of 10 years of exploring many different art jobs - from full/part-time studio work, through freelancing for companies and individual clients, to art directing and running my own art business.

I want to talk about how there is no single “correct” path for artists and creatives. The best route you can take is deeply individual - and sometimes finding your own way means exploring many different ones first.

Looking forward to seeing you there! Anyone else attending the event?

Here presenting you another card created for the Tarot board game project Scales of Influence by Annie Belo - "The Creator", inspired by the traditional Magician card that I finished beginning of this (2026) year.

For this card, part of the original brief was:

“The message from this one is that you create your own reality. [...] Celebrating the magic around us. The awe and wonder of this world. Especially those moments that you do enter to a new place that moves you and you just feel that pure love from ‘the creator’ ‘god’ ‘mother nature’ ‘universe’ [...] but also intertwined with the message that you are your own creator as well and that you have that magic inside you.”

It was quite a challenging one to do but I feel that with each piece I go a little step further in the inner transformation. Still hard to explain in words yet, but I feel a huge change happening in the past years, like I am shedding from the past and creating an entirely new reality, exactly as the Creator on the card.

What is your stance towards Tarot? I'm curious to hear your thoughts, also on this piece 🌌
---

The image was entirely digitally hand painted - no A/I was used at any stage of the process.

I feel that when something is supposed to happen, it just happens. Many coincidences led me to this moment and I am so extremely grateful I could do live painting at first edition of @venus_rising_festival .

Huge thank you to the organizers , @renesanspolska for providing the materials and PAD RES for sponsoring.

I am hopeful that this is just the beginning ✨️👩‍🎨

What happened over the past weekend truly felt like a dream coming true.

I’ve been working as a professional artist for over 10 years now, yet rarely have I felt so fulfilled as I did while live painting during the first edition of the Venus Rising festival.

Painting from life has always been my thing. Since 2014, I’ve been documenting places I visit through visual diaries - stopping, observing, listening, and fully immersing myself in the present moment. It’s a form of meditation that I have practiced long before I even knew what meditation is about.

Taking this experience into a large-scale live painting, surrounded by music and people, felt like a perfect extension to what I have already been doing 🎨

What made it even more special was the interaction with the audience. People kept coming back to check the progress of the painting, looking for themselves and their friends inside it. Children were especially curious - sometimes I even handed them the brush so they could leave a small mark on the artwork themselves 👶

During the day, the painting looked like a regular acrylic landscape painting but once the sun went down, I turned on the UV lights and revealed another layer using fluorescent paints - almost like a second, night version of the same world 🌌✨🎨

I felt incredibly present, aligned, and connected to what I was doing and I know that this is the path I truly want to take in my further art/career path.

Huge huge thanks to @venus_rising_festival for having me, @renesanspolska for providing the materials and PAD RES that made this project possible.

[ENG below]
Cześć, tu Iga Oliwiak 'Igayah' 👩‍🎨

Już w piątek, podczas @venus_rising_festival będę malować wielkoformatowy obraz inspirowany atmosferą wydarzenia - będzie to połączenie pejzazu, muzyki i całej energii wokół 🌀

Będę pracować z materiałami od firmy @renesanspolska , której bardzo dziekujemy za pomoc w realizacji tego projektu.

Wpadajcie 1 i 2 maja do Dolic, żeby zobaczyć, jak taki obraz powstaje na żywo 🎨✨️

[ENG]
Hi, it's Iga Oliwiak 'Igayah' 👩‍🎨

This Friday, during the Venus Rising festival, I’ll be painting a large-scale piece inspired by the atmosphere of the event - a combination of landscape, music, and the energy from all around.

I’ll be working with materials from Renesans Polska, who we’d like to thank for supporting this project.

Join us on May 1–2 in Dolice to see how a painting like this comes to life 💛

#livepainting #igayahart #livepaintingevent #livepaintingartist

"Flow" - one of the 3 cards that I got commissioned to paint for Scales of Influence project

The card is based on the original Temperance Tarot card yet with modern and personal twist 🌀

In the brief Annie (the client) requested to place the character somewhere in South America, and my mind went straight to Patagonia. I visited this beautiful place in March 2023, and it immediately felt right to build the illustration using my own photos and memories from my visit.

Another thing that was mentioned in the brief was a feeling of being deeply connected to the environment, “really immersed in it” and trusting your own path. That became the leading theme of this piece for me. Less about the traditional Tarot symbolism (though I still tried to include the hints like the winged nacklace, one foot in the water sorce, flowers) and more about trusting and being in a great state of Flow - being grounded and present yet still on a constant movement and travel.

In fact, I arrived to Patagonia exactly thanks to the flow - in a mid February of 2026, a night in Madrid, where I was transferring from Morocco to Brazil, my friend @lipasia asked if I wanted to join her on a trip there happening in a month. "Since I was already on that side of the ocean" I cheerfully agreed happy that I would have never thought about going there anytime soon.
It was one of those trips and places you never forget and words nor phots can translate into the feeling of being there. I tried my best though to depict that feeling when I was on that very same path with my own backpack and bottle of water, heading towards the Fitz Roy and admiring all the rainbow colors of the autumn in this paradise ☀️🏞 thank you @lipasia for this opportunity!

**No A/I was used to create this piece at any point of the process **

It’s time to reveal a book cover that I had an immense pleasure working on earlier this year ✨

The book is called Maidens of Erithania, written by Aleksei Mutovkin, and it consists of stories about strong human and nuoni (tree-folk) women. It’s a very pleasant read, full of rich, old-style English language - once I started reading, I couldn’t stop until the end of each story. I was completely hooked!

The e-book is now available - you can search for it by name or follow the link in bio or visit nuoniel.com

Thank you Aleksei for your trust and for being such a pleasure to work with.

Even though it was February, I managed to paint most of the piece outdoors, surrounded by nature and neighboring birds (sometimes Robin was singing right next to me 🥹🐦)

And thanks to this cover, I also learned how to recognize a hornbeam tree - and realized there are quite a lot of them around where I live now 🌿

I’m so grateful I could paint this piece traditionally. I used an acrylic base and then refined everything with hydr-oils gifted to me by @renesans.polska 🙏My new favorite technique that I’ll definitely share more about soon

It feels like a breakthrough piece for me, and I’d love to keep exploring this direction - merging characters and landscape into one 💓

I'd love to hear what you think!
Have a great weekend ☀️

On the second day I painted the Tiny House (one I currently live in and writing from now!) again

- It's unpleasant outside, rather cold and windy, but in the tiny glass house I can paint like I am outside but without feeling the wind and with higher temperature ✨️

I find it extremely valuable to observe (and paint) the same Subject in different light/weather/season conditions and wanted to make these as a collection - same size, same composition. Let's see how many I'll make!

I am also experimenting with techniques - today I painted only with acrylics while two previous knes were done with Hydr-Oils - both using materials from @renesanspolska that I am very grateful to have received as a gift.

Not that fun part:

After 2h session of painting (the painting itself took 1.5h, but with preparation, recording (as I made a whole movie process that please I hope not to forget about, edit and share 🤞) and breaks for stretching and breathe my back suffered so much that the pain only came away in the evening, after a lot of movement/stretching/gym and massage chairs available there.
I feel devastated that despite a lot of will and power my body refuses physically, and I still have commercial work to finish (luckily I got the deadline extended from today but still things are waiting to be finished).

Thank you for reading (I don't know how many people actually do, I am aware that most won't even see this but it's also a form of documentation for me so why not sharing either :)

Cheers 🖤

@pleinairpril @warriorpainters #pleinairpril2026 #igayahpleinair #landscapeart

#PleinAirpril has started!

For the first day I am painting my current home - a tiny house in the Dutch forest. It is a but longer stop in my nomadic journey - I am here to accompany my beloved partner, but I am also focusing on work a lot!

It is a truly dream place to be and I am extremely grateful for everything.

I chose to paint the exact same composition as I did in January so I have the collection of the square at different times of the day and year ✨️

This year I want to focus on painting bigger pieces since I have the space to store the paints and panels/canvases in a contrary to a nomad traveling life where I could only do small formats.
I still will do some traveling - I'll be visiting Eindhoven for @tad.playgrounds, then Berlin and coming back to my hometown in Poland, as each year.

Who else is doing the challenge? ✨️

@pleinairpril @warriorpainters #igayahpleinair #oilpainting #pleinairpril2026 #pleinairpainting

I am excited to share with you my first big painting of 2026 - "In Tune with Venus", commissioned by LuxArtis Foundation, promoting the @venus_rising_festival Rising Festival happening in Dolice, Poland on May 1-2, 2026.

I wanted to explore the connection between Venus and sound - the DJ as a medium, channeling energy and vibration as it moves through her, affecting the space around.

The painting was quite a journey - I was going through a lot of ups and downs - bursts of motivation as well as moments of huge insecurity.

I started with acrylics for the underpainting and switched to Hydr-Oils for the top layers - water-mixable oils gifted to me by @renesanspolska

I consider this painting quite a breakthrough - one that showed me that this format and technique are something worth pursuing further for future personal and commercial projects, especially considering my burnout from digital painting and the rising evolution of A*I-generated images.

I can finally reveal the first big painting I worked on this year ! It's been commissioned as a part of promotion of the upcoming @venus_rising_festival ✨️

Stay tuned, as I'll share more about it in the next posts 😌

#traditionalpainting #HumanArt #igayahart #oilpainting

On this day 3 years ago ~
I was visiting Parque Lage in Rio de Janeiro - it was supposed to be my last day in Rio but I got super sick in the stomach and I had to stay one more day and reschedule my bus to Belo Horizonte to still be able to make it for the animation premiere event run by my dear @aupaulares ✨️
It was my first time in Brazil back then and I came later 2 more times, I so love this country and I plan to come back again whenever the winds will flow that way ❤️

Saudade 🫶🇧🇷

I always liked new sketching challenges 😀
We were going so slowly and steady that I could use both my hands to hold a sketchbook and other to draw - if I felt insecure I wouldn't do it, so don't try it at home 👩‍🏫

From one of the most remarkable travels ever: a 5-day horse ride alongside the Moroccan coast ☀️🐴
- 07.02.2023 -

What's the craziest situation that you sketched/painted at?

Watzmann painting is one from the commissioned collection by @derberghammer - it was the first landscape painting commission that I was doing and I was so happy I could work traditionally. What's more, I could keep the original painting as the final product (the badges that you stick into your hiking sticks) was printed.

I'm still so happy and proud of the collection!

Evening scribbles while hanging on the phone with my beloved one 💞
I recently found my all time book "Faces of Africa" by Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher again at my parents place and I always love to browse through, read the notes and sketch from it! Here's a bride from Himba ethnic group in Angola/Namibia - I so love the symbolism behind their attires!
And bonus Nefertiti from the other book I found (Famous Women) that was won in some kind of school contest, super old !

Exactly 3 years ago on this day I was roaming Moroccan coast on a 5-day horse ride that was an absolute dream coming true! Here also a sketch from a lunch break 🎨

Another throwback to a very important moment that happened in Barcelona in 2024 - I still get chills when I come back to that day! Quote from my diary:
"Friday 2.02 marks the day when my accumulator of a stopped car sparks again and is pushed to keep going on it's own - but on this day it felt like it's been pushed from a hill with a really high speed, to eventually reach the straight road and slow down a bit, but at least keeping on going (I hope that's what's going to happen!). After a very inspiring time of these past days, through new places, new connections, new ideas - I got the long awaited motivation to restart the engine. I painted and painted, enjoying every single stroke, with additional accompany of my recently favourite music, being able to dive deep in a sea of creativity and flow, forgetting about the surface above - I've felt so good. Maybe all in all everything indeed forms into something when you do not force or pressure things - something I'm facing (and unfortunately fighting, bouncing off the wall so often) during the past month after my arrival to Barcelona. But I see a lot of light and hope now 🖤☀️✨️"

The burnout had been a very serious issue for me, for years I didn't have the same motivation for painting (I still don't have it as before, but it definirely came back and I feel the joy in creation again). What you can see here is a self portrait when I started to use a chisel knife - the technique of impasto that I later used in other paintings like Pajaro Poderoso and Bloom of Infinity ✨️

Did you also experience such sudden spark after being burnout? Do you remember that moment?

Here’s a first digital illustration piece that I have done for around... 2? Perhaps 3 years? An illustration I painted for a Tarot board game project @scalesofinfluence , run by Annie Belo.
It’s inspired by the traditional Hermit card, reimagined as The Stillness.
The character represents a modern-day monk: isolated, but not lonely. Present, grounded, and deeply attuned to herself.
To reflect the Mongolian character, I incorporated the Soyombo symbol she's wearing as a necklace.

Follow @scalesofinfluence on more info about the project, campaign etc!

Happy B-Day to @jaclinkareta - one of the kindest, most beautiful, sweetest, funniest, emphatic and creative people I know on this planet!

The sketches were inspired by her self portrait photos - Jack is not only a great artist (this is how I got to know her - amazed by her sketchbook with portraits - @jaclin.draws ) but also a photographer with a great sense of aesthetics - which she now chose as a path to follow professionally. Please go check out her work and give her some love!
Again, all the best in your day 🫶

One year ago together with @art_you_are we did a live painting at the concert jam that happened in @krzywygryf !

It was an absolutely spontaneous idea that came up just the night before, while casually going to another concert.

I love such initiatives - it's not only a fun experience but also creating new opportunities and opening new doors.

Live painting is something I've been doing forever and registering an event on the canvas is not only an extraordinary thing to experience for an artist, for the curious people around but the moment is saved in the form of artwork that can be exhibited or bought (which happened in this case, we sold both of the canvases that night!).

I am very open to more of such expefiencds, so if you are interested in having your event registered in a form of art, contact me or visit igayah.art/livepainting to find out more ✨️

My favourite part from a painting process of Heliconia Kayapo painting - I was definitely holding my breath until the very end of this brushstroke!

I painted this piece back in 2023 in Colombia after visiting a botanical garden in Bogota, inspired be Heliconia plant. The Kayapo people are indigenous community in Amazon Rainforest.

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10 years of travel outdoor painting with watercolor and gouache - setup, tips and a brief history

10 years of travel outdoor painting with watercolor and gouache - setup, tips and a brief history

10 Paintings in One Day Challenge - Original Paintings for Sale

Wykład o malowaniu w podróży + warsztaty akwareli z gwaszem

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•》TRAVELING AND PAINTING THE WORLD《•

•》Hi, I'm Igayah《•

•》THINGS I DO《•

Portraits

•》BLOG《•

•》Featured Post

10 years of travel outdoor painting with watercolor and gouache - setup, tips and a brief history

10 years of travel outdoor painting with watercolor and gouache - setup, tips and a brief history

10 Paintings in One Day Challenge - Original Paintings for Sale

Wykład o malowaniu w podróży + warsztaty akwareli z gwaszem

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Follow me on Instagram

Let's stay in touch!