DPW Spotlight Interview: Maria Snarska

Each week we will spotlight a different DPW artist who will give away one of their best paintings. To enter to win Maria's painting "Last Green Leaves" go to Daily Paintworks and click on the link at the top of the page announcing their interview.

From Maria's DPW Gallery Page:

Hello, I draw oil paintings and botanical drawings with a pen or pencil. Drawings can be seen and be purchased as a digital file here.

I am an artist since childhood. My parents always supported my passion for drawing and sculpture. I graduated from the Academy of Arts with a degree in graphics and am still on my way to excellence in drawing and painting. I have been painting realistic still lifes for the past seven years. I seek and find beauty everywhere and continue to improve my drawing technique. I love everything that I draw so much! And I see that my customers feel it!

I live and work in Kiev, Ukraine.

Original painting for sale and portraits to order, you can see here.

Please keep in mind that everyone who buys a picture in my store ArtVisible will get a portrait in pencil as a gift.

Tell us a bit about how you first started painting.

I began to draw as a child as all children do, and so I continue. My father was my first drawing teacher.

Last Green Leaves
(click to view)

Enter to win by clicking on the link at the top of the DPW home page announcing Maria's interview.

What mediums and genres have you experimented with?

I painted in very different techniques such as tempera, watercolor, oil, acrylic, ink, pencil, pen, marker. I also sculpted sculptural portraits, was engaged in ceramics and relief. Now I mainly paint realistic still lifes and landscapes in oil and portraits in pencil. Oil has revealed great opportunities for the implementation of my ideas - an ideal technique for drawing in the style of realism. I don’t do sculpture at all now.

Which ones are you looking forward to exploring?

I don’t know exactly where my creative thought will lead me in the future. I will endlessly research all drawing techniques!

Custom Portrait
(click to view)

Who or what inspires you most?

I am very inspired by the sunlight. Sunlight reveals the shape of objects and greatly changes all colors. It transforms and makes even the usual urban environment romantic and mysterious, fills it with mood. I live in the city but I have a garden and two parks nearby so I am surrounded by nature.

How do you generally arrive at ideas for your paintings?

Usually, I go to my garden to collect a bouquet of flowers and make up a still life, supplement it, then wait for the necessary lighting for several days, then photograph and start painting. Sometimes I start to paint a picture from nature. I try to convey the harmony, mood, personality of each flower or fruit. When I draw, this is a special state of mind - calm. There are no technical secrets in the technique of my drawing. I try to draw every piece of the picture beautifully.

Still life with chrysanthemums and apples
(click to view)

How long do you need to paint one still life with oil?

All still lifes are very different and the time for painting with oil varies from one month to three times that. Little oil sketches I paint in one to three days.

What does procrastination look like for you?

Oh, this is terrible - I go from room to room and do all sorts of nonsense, but at the same time I think about important things.

Still life with lilies
(click to view)

How do you fight procrastination?

I tell myself that I need a result, not just employment. Sometimes it works.

When I have an urgent or compulsory job, I sit down in front of the easel and look at the canvas, not allowing myself to leave. After a while, I start mixing paints on the palette and finally paint with oil.

What techniques work to ensure that you make time for your art?

Just seizing the moment and working. I divide the day in half - morning and day for painting, evening for graphics. The deadline is very good for me.

Springtime
(click to view)

What makes you happiest about your art?

I am happy when I can draw a picture of how I imagine it in my mind right the first time, without corrections and redraws!

I am happy when people like my paintings. I am very pleased that the community and the Daily Paintworks artists have written positive reviews for my drawings and paintings. This also supports me very much.

Did you have any stops and starts in your painting career?

There really were periods in my life when I did not draw at all. For example, when my daughter was small. Now I have time for drawing - I paint at home. And I think my career as an artist will be actively developing right now!

Wild flowers and pears
(click to view)

Thanks, Maria!

© 2020 Sophie Marine