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