About the Artist

About the Artist

Lena Kurovska is a Ukrainian painter based in Kyiv. She graduated from the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in Kyiv, where she studied the human figure and developed a strong academic foundation. After graduating, she became increasingly drawn to painting outdoors and to the direct experience of working from life.

Places That Shaped My Practice

My interest in plein-air painting began while I was studying at the Academy. I spent summers at my parents’ dacha outside Kyiv, surrounded by villages where people grew vegetables and kept animals. The fields, lakes and village houses brought back memories of childhood summers with my grandparents in the countryside. I loved the quiet, the birdsong and the feeling of being close to nature. Living in Kyiv, a large and busy city, makes those moments in the landscape especially precious to me.

The countryside of England has also become an important part of my artistic life. For more than twenty-five years, my connection with Britain has been sustained by friendships, exhibitions and opportunities to paint there. Whenever I can, I return to the English landscape with great pleasure.

In 2022, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, I spent almost a year in England. I was grateful for the welcome and support I received, and for the opportunity to continue painting. That time strengthened my connection with England and its landscapes.

My Practice

I return to familiar places because they are never quite the same. The light shifts, the weather changes, and my own response changes with them. Each painting begins with looking: noticing what gives a place its particular feeling and deciding what is essential.

I paint outdoors whenever I can. Larger works often develop through a combination of plein-air painting and studio work. Small-format landscapes can be completed in a single day. Their scale is part of their character: they allow me to respond directly to a passing impression and hold on to a moment that cannot be repeated. I see these paintings as complete works in their own right.

I work in oils, often alla prima. Changing light and weather call for clear decisions and a sense of the whole composition. I plan the structure of a painting before I begin, while staying attentive to what unfolds in front of me. Sometimes an idea comes spontaneously; even a familiar view can lead somewhere unexpected.

Landscape painting, for me, is a form of meditation: sustained attention, careful selection and a search for what matters most. Simplicity is essential. I try to leave out what is unnecessary and give each painting a clarity that rewards looking over time.

My influences include Ukrainian colourists, the Canadian Group of Seven, American painters Edgar Payne and Maynard Dixon, and the Scottish Colourists.

Still Life

Still life is another important part of my practice. I often paint flowers, including peonies, outdoors as well as in the studio. Like a landscape, a bouquet is always changing. Its fleeting character invites the same close attention to light, colour and form.

Printmaking

I first encountered printmaking at the age of ten, when I joined an art studio. One of our earliest projects was a print made from cardboard, and I still remember the pleasure of making an image and then printing it.

Many years later, a close friend who is a printmaker inspired me to return to the medium. I was drawn again to its clarity and economy—to the way a few carefully chosen marks can express so much. I love the process of printing itself: the anticipation, the physical act of working with the materials, and the moment the image appears on paper.

Exhibitions

2012 – Solo exhibition “Air, Light, Colour””, the UN House, Kyiv, Ukraine
2011 – Spring exhibition, The Biscuit Factory Art Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
2007 – ZiZi Gallery, London Solo Exhibition
2008 – East European Artists, the UK
2007 – Chrismas Show, EE Fine Art, Cambridge, UK
2007 – 60th exhibition of the Chelsea Art Society, London, UK
2007 – Gallery In Cork Street, London, UK
2006 – The Mall Galleries, London, UK
2006 – 59th exhibition of the Chelsea Art Society, London, UK
2003 – Group Exhibition, Grifon Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine
3-26.11.1999 – Solo exhibition “New Impressionism”, Soni Gallery, London, UK

Lena’s artworks are:

In the Art Museum of Taras Shevtchenko in Beijing, China. In private collections in the USA (California, New Jersey, Michigan, Georgia, Florida and others), Canada, Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Hong Kong and Japan.