Maria was always destined to be an artist. Born in Crimea to a Russian family, she drew from a young age absorbing the influences of European art — with its pillars of beauty, integrity and meticulously principled creation — before moving to Australia at the age of 10.
As a qualified illustrator and graphic designer, Maria worked in the design industry before dedicating herself to her art on a full-time basis. In 2018, looking to improve her technical prowess she completed a BFA (Monash University) before studying under the mentorship of traditional painters where she honed the enduring classical techniques of oil painting.
Maria’s portraiture and still-life works are her reference points for the beauty all around her. The daily ritual of drawing and painting has instilled in her a capacity to observe the world deeply and intuitively while the richness of her acquired knowledge lends itself to paintings that hold within them an essence of profound skill. A masterly understanding of brushwork is subtly evident; light is gently orchestrated to illuminate subjects with realism alongside a delicate understory of foreboding which is carried by shadows and resonant expressions. This mediation between beauty and an infinitesimal suggestion of the sinister is what becomes Maria’s primary language, searing her works onto the memory of the viewer long after they have left them behind.
Alongside her continued dedication to perfecting her technique, Maria harbours a fascination for art’s capacity to act as an antithesis of today’s fast-paced culture. Her paintings encourage viewers to be present, to notice the beauty of the every day, those fleeting moments that make the world feel more like home.