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LIUDMYLA POPOVA

THE WAY OF THE ARTIST

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I am Liudmyla Popova, and I was born in Rivne, Ukraine. 
In 1993 I graduated from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.


Before 2014, I worked as a graphic designer for two decades, creating compelling advertising blocks, editing newspapers and magazines, designing eye-catching outdoor signs, and crafting attractive packaging.


I started painting in 2014, and in 2017, my first collective exhibition of oil paintings took place at the Boyko Art Center in Kyiv.


In 2020, I suddenly became captivated by watercolors and dedicated myself to mastering the skills of watercolor painting. Within a year, my watercolor works underwent rigorous moderation by Ukrainian art expert Evgen Karasy and were exhibited for sale in the All-Ukrainian group of artists "Sil-Sol."


In 2021, I began studying at the First Private Academy of Arts under Inna Pavlechko-Tumarkin. This marked the initiation of a new style in my works and the adoption of acrylic painting techniques. Through my artworks, I strive to convey emotions through vibrant colors and captivating imagery.

Since the beginning of 2023, I have joined the Community of Ukrainian Artists @uartist83, where I have had the opportunity to meet interesting people and participate in international group exhibitions.

Now I live and engage in painting in Rivne, Ukraine.

2025, 01.02 - 19.02 - exhibition "Reptiles," contemporary art gallery "BBArt Gallery," Odesa.

2025, 14.01 - virtual exhibition of meta-senses "Temporarily Here", contemporary Ukrainian art gallery Meta senses.

2024, 20.12 - 2025, 31.01 - exhibition "Roots of the Ancestors", Lviv.

2024, 31.10 - 17.11 - Fifth All-Ukrainian and International Exhibition-Biennale, Central House of Artists of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine, Kyiv.

2024, October - November - "I am an artist, this is how I see" for the Artist's Day, Warrior's House, Lviv.

2024, August 4th - September 24th - "HOPE OF GENERATIONS" for Ukraine's Independence Day, BBArtGallery, Odesa.

2024, July 3rd - August 20th - "GENERATION OF WAR. The Third Year," Central Park of Recreation, Kyiv, near the Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian People.

2024, April 15th - August 20th - "UNITED BY WATERCOLOR," Regional Center for Aesthetic Education named after Emilia Yevdokimova, Izmail.

2024, March 15th - April 15th - Collective Charity Exhibition "UNITED BY WATERCOLOR," Museum of Eastern and Western Art, Odesa.

2023, December - "PLACES OF POWER," Ljubljana (Slovenia).

2023, August - "VOLUNTEERS IN THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE AND FREEDOM," Ljubljana (Slovenia).

2023, May - Charity Polish-Ukrainian Festival at the Cracow University of Economics.

2017, February - collective exhibition of oil paintings, Boyko Art Center in Kyiv.

2024, April - Artwork Gallery Issue 6, "New Horizons," published an article about my artwork and featured a photo of the painting "The Sun is Low, the Evening is Near."

VILLAGE

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The place of communication with the Universe is not necessarily a mobile connection. On the contrary, its absence, silence and peace allow one to delve into the space of the combination of the Soul with the inner Being.

 

For me, such a place is a small village in Podilla, where the genealogy of my ancestors originates. The village of Vyla-Yaruzki is located on the banks of the Murafa River in a lowland between the hills of granite slabs of the Podilsk Highlands. At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, the village was quite powerful, it had 5 mills and a school, the director of which in the 20s was my great-grandfather M.S. Shevchenko-Kotenko. The great-grandfather left behind manuscripts with ethnographic and geological studies of the area, notated recordings of folk songs and a pine forest, which he planted on the river slope together with his students. He suffered from oppression by the Soviet authorities as a person who introduced and developed Ukrainian culture, was exiled to the north of Russia, worked there together with Academician Fersman on a geological reconnaissance expedition and wrote a book published under Fersman's authorship.

 

When there is an opportunity to come to that wonderful land, to immerse myself in a free blooming space, to drink spring water, I definitely arrange outdoor hikes in order to convey on canvas the impression of the healing touch of nature. Sometimes these works remain in sketch execution, preserving the freshness of the vision. I hope that my work will help the viewer to find his secret place of connection with the Universe.

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WAR

Before the start of the war in 2022, I sent my watercolor flowers to the "Spring Flurry" competition in the Dnipropetrovsk organization of the Union of Artists of Ukraine, but it was not destined to take place.

The war destroyed all plans and hopes, I had to leave Ukraine with the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

 

Thanks to the support of caring people, relatives and acquaintances, I was able to continue creating, but psychologically it was very difficult to find the strength for creativity. This period is partially reflected in my watercolors, experiments with form and color, material and ideas.

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