Statement
Artist Statement: Irina Bakumenko
The fact that I am a creative person, I have never doubted. In childhood, this was expressed in participating in various activities including: studying at a music school, issuing school wall newspapers, organizing holidays, and even writing poetry.
In my more than 25 years in business, I participated in many entrepreneurial activities that reflected my creativity. I was a driving force in the development of new directions, marketing a company and stimulating staff and customers.
Six years ago, for the first time after drawing lessons in school, I picked up watercolours. It was an emotional moment when I realized that I had returned to my real self, my special bright world in which my soul was filled with beautiful images and inspiration. I suddenly realized that I was looking at the surrounding world through the eyes of an artist and I wanted to return to that beauty that I felt.
Starting to draw, I am constantly learning. I took several online courses from 1 to 6 months in teaching the basics of drawing, academic drawing, and watercolor painting.
I take part in numerous online marathons and trainings from world famous watercolor artists. I paint in watercolor, this technique gives me the opportunity to constantly experiment, moving from transparent, light images to dense multi-layered fills. I love watercolor for all the wonders that it does with water, for the possibility of creating hundreds of color options.
I am constantly inspired because I perceive the world as an amazing and beautiful picture with millions of color images. But I am especially inspired by trips in which I discover cities with unique architecture of each country, ancient buildings and castles, colonial-style houses, elements of household utensils and furniture, door and window decorations, bridges and streets. Therefore, one of the main topics in my work is the urban landscape or cityscape. I also like to create portraits of houses to order. When I paint such a picture, I reflect the owner, the holidays and dinners in the house, the birth of children and their growing up, friendly gatherings and parties.
Having walked this artistic journey for such a short time, I am delighted that my work causes joy, appreciation and sincere emotions in people. I constantly get feedback and I am happy that my collectors are in countries such as Portugal, Russia(my native country), USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, France and Denmark,China,Germany.
I'm still looking for my style and place in the art world but what I know for sure is that I am grateful for the ability to see beauty and share it with others through my watercolour work.