My name is Marina Urchukina. For as long as I can remember, I have always painted. Radical changes in the country, then taking care of my family and child as a corporate expat spouse, veered me off the professional artist career for a while. I lived and painted in Slovenia, Ukraine and the US. I love flowers, paint mostly flowers: on canvas, paper, plywood, “Christmas bubbles,” anything goes. My favorite subjects are flowers and still life. Though not as frequently seen in my work, occasionally, I am attracted to the landscape. Oil and acrylic on canvas, brush, and palette knife are my favorite media and tools. I learned through practical experience, studying the works of my artistic influences, and experimenting with different techniques. With each step, I gratefully absorbed their precious guidance. While I may not have a formal academic background in the arts, I consider myself an artist in the making, continuously pushing the boundaries of my creativity. Here are some of my most significant influences: Isaac Levitan, Henri Fantin-Latour, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Konstantin Korovin. Contemporary major influences include Daniel J. Keys, Serguei Toutounov, Tuman Zhumabaev, Quang Ho, Michael Klein, David Leffel, Richard Schmid, and a few others. For me, it’s impossible not to paint. Although my friends have been urging me to exhibit my art for a while, I've only recently decided to share my work with a broader audience. It's been an exciting journey so far, and I can't wait to see where it takes me next. An experience gets more exciting when shared; that’s where this site comes in. Where to go from here? Let's see. All I know for sure is that painting has become my lifelong commitment. I will continue to paint for as long as there is air to breathe and flowers to adore. My works are in private collections in the US, Ukraine and some others. Web presence: Saatchi Art The Artling

Art is all about sharing: sharing the artist’s emotions. For me, it's about capturing a moment of awe and sharing it with the world. I love flowers, I paint mostly flowers: on canvas, paper, plywood, “Christmas bubbles,” anything goes. My favorite subjects are flowers and still life. Though occasionally landscapes catch my eye too. Oil and acrylic on canvas, brush, and palette knife are my favorite media and tools. Growing up, I read countless fairy tales and legends. Sometimes this childhood experience sneaks into my paintings. Flowers, nature in general, might be a portal between the domains of reality and fantasy, who knows. Perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise that I also write poetry. A poetic view of the world gently weaves into my art, as you may have noticed. The flowers themselves are all about rhythm, balance, tone, proportions, accents, and harmony. Divine Proportion and chaos, everything is there in the flowers – this is what I try to catch when I paint. It's exhilarating! I wonder if the physicist would use the same words to describe the Universe. I paint to express my endless admiration for the beauty of flowers and maybe even the Universe itself.

Materials that inspire and drive my work:

• Oils: Winsor & Newton, Lefranc Bourgeois;
• Acrylics: Maimeri;
• Brushes: Rosemary & Co Artists Brushes;
• Medium: Winsor & Newton Liquin;
• Varnish: Gamblin Gamvar Varnish (Gloss);
• Canvas: Gallery wrap, 100% cotton, made in Italy, stretched on pinewood frame 0.71×1.65″ (18x42mm).