Nataliya Gritsenya

I like to think of myself as an artist by design. Noticing beautiful things, making them into art feels natural.

I started drawing at about 2 or 3, like many people do. When I was 4 (1993), I started to attend Rishard Mai’s children’s art studio in Minsk. Drawing and painting was the first craft...

I like to think of myself as an artist by design. Noticing beautiful things, making them into art feels natural.

I started drawing at about 2 or 3, like many people do. When I was 4 (1993), I started to attend Rishard Mai’s children’s art studio in Minsk. Drawing and painting was the first craft I learned. For 14 years, I’ve mastered it with various media: gouache, acrylic, tempera, pen and pencil, even fingers; on paper, cardboard, plywood, canvas and more.
During that time I also learned about exhibitions and plein-airs which I’ve seen and joined many. I participated in numerous group exhibitions (both local and international), but never had a personal one. It is still my dream.

When I was 18 (2007), I had to leave studio due to studying at university and could only draw for myself in my free time.
And then in 2016, I could hold it no more and returned to drawing a lot. Interestingly, my artistic voice has changed: it used to be mostly vivid colourful gouache paintings, now it’s mostly graphics in moderate hues with experiments in combination of different media.