Veronika Rayek

There are two things in Veronika (American Girl) that were not in the photograph.

Who is Veronika Rayek?

Veronika Rajek is a Slovak model who has worked in fashion since her teens, starting out in Milan.

She has modelled for houses including Dolce & Gabbana, Blumarine, Philipp Plein and Moschino, works regularly in swimwear and lifestyle campaigns, and is represented by an agency while running her own brand partnerships through her channels.

This summary is put together from publicly available sources and has not been checked with her. If something here is wrong or she would rather it were not here, write to the studio and it is corrected or removed.

Painting Veronika Rayek in the studio

One of them you can find if you look properly. The other does not exist in any image of this work, including the one on the screen in front of you. It is only there if the canvas is in the room, and once you have seen it the hat and the denim stop meaning what you assumed they meant.

I am not going to say more than that. It took me weeks to arrive at it and about four seconds to give away, so I would rather you had it the first way.

The edges are painted, which means the work carries on around the sides of the stretcher instead of stopping at the front. It is also the plainest argument I have for why a photograph of a painting is not the painting.

Days at a time over several weeks. No sketch and no plan. It stopped when I was finished with it.

Veronika Rayek paintings: what exists

Oil on stretched canvas, 100 x 80 cm, signed, one of one, from Painted Idols. A hand-signed print exists in a small edition that is never reprinted -- though the second of the two things is exactly what a print cannot carry.

What is still available, and at what price, is on the cards below.