Classically trained like artists used to be ‘back then’
Present and painting what’s Here Now
A member of Portrait Society of America, Tatyana is currently based in New Zealand. Leaving her birthplace in Crimea, Tatyana completed her B.A. and M.A. degrees in the USA. After exploring careers in consulting and non-profits, drawn to traditional ideas of beauty and art she sought out the Florence Academy of Art (FAA) to discover a solid foundation as a painter, graduating with diploma in Painting. Tatyana is a recipient of the Ann Lee and John F. Stacey scholarship awarded to emerging realist artists. She is a prizewinner of the ARC scholarship competition as well as an awardee of the 4th Year Prize apprenticeship at the Florence Academy of Art. In 2014 her work was accepted to the Royal Academy of Portrait Painters Exhibition in London. In 2015 she showed at "The Royal Society of British Painters Exhibition 2015" where she has received the 'The de László Award for Classical Draughtsmanship'. Other showings include "Chiaroscuro" with the Richard Massey foundation in New York, NY and "Women Painting Women" in Charleston at the Principal Gallery. Tatyana was a finalist in the Parkin Drawing Prize in Wellington New Zealand in 2016 and has received the Nola Hartford Memorial Award at Peter Doig National Art Awards in Blenheim, NZ in 2017. She recently held a solo exhibition of 37 paintings at Aratoi Museum in Masterton, New Zealand.
Tatyana’s paintings can be found in private collections in the UK, USA, Europe and New Zealand as well as now in the permanent collection of the New Britain Museum of American Art in New Britain, Connecticut and Cameron Museum of Art in Wilmington, NC.
As a former instructor at the Florence Academy of Art in Florence, Italy, where she taught drawing and painting, Tatyana is continuing her teaching practice in Wellington, working with students in her Anthesis Atelier on lower Cuba St providing teaching in the classical tradition. Tatyana travels teaching master classes in Australia, Europe and New Zealand. Tatyana is most passionate about painting commissioned work as well as her sought-after floral work in her studio on Cuba st; here she has painted (among others) the official portrait of Sir Bill English, Dr. Jane Goodall and Minister James Shaw.
FAQ’s Why don’t you paint from photographs?
Being present to life is the reason I paint. I delight in observing the light falling on petals or how it changes intensity as the form turns in space to create the presence of a person. In the times of smartphones, AI and drone deliveries, the speed of the world is mind boggling. Everything competes for our attention and we don’t give sufficient consideration as to how to grant this precious commodity. My painting practice is a method of coming into presence with oneself and finding the listening to what’s inside, both for myself and my subject. I choose to paint slowly, exclusively from life, in natural light, in communion with what I am observing. It is the method of observing and dialoguing with life that delivers a presence-filled work. That’s why contemplation of a painting created from life gives the viewer the experience of presence, and the painting itself is a presence.
Why does the work look “old fashioned”?
Vast majority of imagery produced these days is a copy from photographs or is abstract - and that’s what we have gotten used to art looking a certain way. We are inundated with smart phone images and advertisements. Our aesthetic is driven by what we are used to looking at, and turns out we don’t look at life very often - not in the way that allows us to notice it. To produce a work from life with deliberate expression and appreciation of process and not copying for the sake of efficiently arriving to a ‘product’ is something that was practiced since humans started making art, through the renaissance and up to the middle of the 20th century. Currently in the product oriented world, appreciation of process seems to be obscured. But that’s what makes my work look ‘real’: the deliberate observation, and not the superficial level of detail in the pores and wrinkles copied from a zoomed in photo. Nowadays, experiencing something deeply seen and crafted is increasingly rare. For me no convenience in the world can replace ‘being seen’ and ‘seeing’.
Why does your work cost so much?
3 main reasons 1. I have invested 2 decades of life into my training and full time art and teaching practice therefore my work is highly skilled and did not arrive to me by the virtue of ‘talent’. Though I am blessed with certain natural abilities I went through full time academic training and would be among a fraction of 1% of artists who have done so. 2. I use highest quality materials which I often hand make. This comes with a lot of knowledge of pigment, support and tool properties that I am continuously expanding. My work contains zero plastic and is 100% natural and compostable. 3. I do not use the aid of photography, AI or any other method rather than my own eye, body and observation. This is a 100% human made and increasingly rare.
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A painting transports you to the timeless place of the “now”