Contemporary artist Diana Larina
Diana Larina is a contemporary artist who embarked on her professional artistic
journey after years of working in interior design and icon workshops. In 2019
Larina found her own style, which gained a sufficient recognition today.
While working with watercolour, she primarily focuses on its form and volume,
starting with the coloured cloud. Any further cloud is applied by hand, thus
making the work multilayered. The process of creating coloured clouds is
unpredictable in every single form. Larina’s distinctive approach lies in expressive
way of working with watercolours on big formats while using no brush.
What is your special process?
My technique is different from classical watercolor painting, I more observe how the
material behaves. I quickly become bored of drawing on paper and wanted more
emotions and more space for work. Аnd I started experimenting with canvas. My
work process is multi-layered, firstly I start with a pencil, then comes pigment, gold
leaf, and often ink. Each layer overlaps the other, but not drowning, but only
emphasizing the importance of each, forming the whole work, as in life, experience
forms a personality.
On large canvas, I prefer to work without a brush, it helps me work with large and
unpredictable forms and saturated pigment.
When you were painting the piece called 'Mother', were you having maternal instincts? Or do you desire to become a mother? What is the gender of the fetus?
I am a mother to 2 beautiful humans, but this artwork more about personal
transformation.
I believe that every person, at least once in his life, thinks that he is much more than
just a physical body living according to the rules of society. That each person can
feel the life within him, with which he is connected not only with nearby people, but
also the planet as a whole. I believe that the life of an entire planet depends on each
individual living being.
“Mother” is one of several works in which I discuss the theme of Rebirth. The rebirth
of each person and society as a whole.
It is very interesting to see the women in different appearance, different sophistication in a woman and complexity, what were your personal impressions and feelings at the point of painting?
These works are part of the reflection of my internal state, in the period when I began
to recognize myself as a woman and get to know her. I think that many people are
familiar with the feeling when you are told that you are a girl and you have to behave
somehow, to wear something, to say something like that. And only now, raising my
daughter, I understand that this does not work, that the female nature is much more
deeper and more multifaceted and attractive. And it is necessary to open it, get
acquainted with it and give the opportunity to play with its unique tones. And each
one has this TONE (shade) of its own. unique and inimitable.
I thank my daughter for the fact that every day she teaches me more and more to
reveal in myself that beauty, and which does not look like anyone else.
I like to watch people, for emotions, behavior and i so happy when i can find a small
spark in their eyes.
On 'Rebirth', for the viewer of this art, it is more what was the previous life like. As the artist creating this painting, do you have a different view?
For me, rebirth is about the process of personality transformation. For myself, I
choose this process of continuous growth and forward movement.
External and internal changes are not always easy, more often, in order for these
changes to begin, efforts must be made. And this is exactly what this work is about.
Not about pain, not about fear, about working on yourself.
About the path that I chose for myself, about inner work, about daily work in everyday
life and in the professional sphere.
About the fact that every day YOU become more professional, calmer, smarter and
so on. And this is your choice.
But at the same time, as a mother, I can confidently say that this is a pleasant and
interesting process. Even if at first you think otherwise.
During this COVID19 period, what kind of 'woman' paintings have you made? Could you paint any artwork? What does it look like (if you didn't paint any)? And if you did, is it part of the collection?
For me, as for many, the quarantine period is a time of silence. and when the external
noise subsides and the speed decreases, movement begins inside. During this
period I began several works, including sketches for a large work on the canvas
Rebirth. I honestly admit that this work is not easy for me, because now much is
changing in my life, I hear myself more and more and I really want to reflect this
process in my new artwork.
During this period, thoughts came at a tremendous speed and I only had time to fix
them on paper.
Usually I work in parallel on 3-5 large works, and now, after the quarantine period, I
begin to gradually detail everything that I managed to start during the quarantine.
In new works, I continue to reflect on the topic of personal growth, sensation and
self-knowledge, and the significance of creativity for each of us.
In this, I experimented a lot with materials and equipment, I am sure that these
experiments will bear fruit in my new works. More details and emotions will appear.
More info:
Website: http://dianalarina.art
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dianalarina
