I paint what water does to light and what flowers do to the soul.
I am Ukrainian, from a family with both Ukrainian and Russian roots, and I have been drawing and painting for as long as I can remember: through art school, through every occupation that was supposed to be more sensible, through everything. Oil on canvas is the language I keep returning to: slow, layered, patient.
In 2022, the war took our home out of our lives. With my husband and our two sons I found myself in Valencia, and the Mediterranean gave me my subject back. The sea here changes colour by the hour. I paint it the way the marine painters I grew up with, Aivazovsky above all, taught me to look: not at scenery, but at light in motion.
The rest of my world finds its way onto canvas too: hydrangeas from Belgium and Spain's Atlantic north, still ponds, jasmine and bougainvillea from the streets of the Marina Alta, garden flowers in every stage of bloom and, occasionally, the opinions of our cat, who supervises the studio and approves very little.
Every painting here is an original oil, made by hand in my Valencia studio, signed, and packed for its journey to you with care.
Hanna