In her art Irina strives to capture the living moment of ever-changing reality. She is attracted to the way the light creates our vision and perception of the world and is aware of the endlessly alive and vital energy within the form when trying to express that invisible presence of life essence in her paintings. Irina may be inspired by a quite simple scene or subject while suddenly seeing its beauty under the play of light and shadow. While Irina has a special interest in portraiture, her portfolio also includes landscape, still life and abstract. But regardless of the painting's subject matter Irina always pursues the timeless motive of beauty in her work.

.    .    .

Irina was born and lived in Russia until 2002. All her working life there was focused on research in physics at university and teaching physics. Because of her continual interest in art Irina visited numerous galleries and museums where she could closely examine the great original masterpieces of the Old Masters. Back then she painted only occasionally in her spare time. After coming to Canada Irina finally had an opportunity to devote herself to painting. After some formal training in art Irina embarked on her own way of intensive self-education and further exploration. Being trained as a physicist, Irina tries to find out how things work and researches her subject of interest in great depth. In addition to oil painting and past techniques, she also searches for new possibilities of other mediums and methods to convey the perception of light on canvas.

Art, History of Art, Philosophy, Psychology are at the core of Irina's interests that form her approach to life. The amazing Masters Robert Henri, John Singer Sargent, Valentin Serov, Richard Schmid, David Leffel among others, and of course the Great Rembrandt, have influenced her insight on making and viewing art and she looks forward to continuing this exciting experience. Many of Irina's works are part of private collections in Russia, Slovakia, Canada, and USA.

Education

• Master's Degree in Physics, Science, Education (Voronezh State University, Russia)
• Diploma w/Honours (ThomsonEdu, The School of Art, Scranton, PA, USA)

Affiliations

• Waterloo Regional Arts Council
• Kitchener-Waterloo Society of Artists
• Portrait Society of America