I was born in March, maybe that's why spring became the source of my creative inspiration. My first acquaintance with the spring in Crimea took place in Gurzuf in 1967 during a creative trip from the Darnytsya Silk Factory, where I was working as a fabric artist at the time. The purpose of the business trip was to find artistic motives to create new patterns for dress fabrics. I made full-scale sketches of flowers and plants at the Nikitsky Botanical Garden, landscapes of the Crimea, which I then styled and adapted to create fabric steps. At that time it was an innovation to introduce Crimean landscapes into the basis of drawings of artistic fabrics, when the fabric became not just an ordered set of forms of flowers and ornaments, but a multidimensional drawing that unfolded on the fabric with a picture without beginning and ending. While working on sketches, I experimented with techniques and materials - from various graphic techniques to oil painting. At that time I could not even imagine that eventually painting would become the main direction of my creative work.  

    In 1991, a new stage of my work began, which I defined for myself as “A NEW BIRTH. "HEAVEN", GURZUF, CRIMEA. CREDO - GOD IS! GOD IS! ”  That year I wrote the work "In The Land of Spirits  - the Mystery of the Heavenly Kingdom”. This work opened my ability to see the spiritual manifestation of the World, I felt the energy of living Nature.  ​

    Plein air painting in the Crimea - is a force of nature. You never know what it will give you. It is almost impossible to catch light at sea and on the cliffs, because time and clouds have a fleeting moment, but for me it is invaluable! Sometimes I asked Heaven that the storm would not blow my easel into the sea or tear the painting from the easel as I tried to capture this fleeting spontaneous moment on the canvas.  

     Since 1991, I have not missed a single spring in Gurzuf. The energy of Chekhov Bay inspired me to create. My favorite morning sun, the cliffs and the sea, I repeatedly painted at different times of the year, and each time it felt like the first encounter.

     I loved to walk the labyrinths of Gurzuf trails, where I was accompanied by my favorite little lemon-yellow flowers of genista, seeing the flowers of forsythia, Japanese sakura, gentle Indian lilac, the first mountain flowers of milkweed, gentle blooms of almond trees, peaches, cacti and wisteria. And by the sea I was greeted by the sound of the waves and the kingdom of great mountain cliffs. From Bear Mountain (Ayu-Dag) to Chekhov Bay, I found myself in the Land of Spirits - the Mystery of the Heavenly Kingdom. Here I first felt the elusive mystery of light, the energy of which I try to convey in my works.  

    This whole Heavenly world of Gurzuf has become a temple of Nature for me, which inspired me in my elemental painting. When I start painting, I am always overwhelmed by a sense of God's grace. In the Nature of the Crimea I felt and saw the secret of the infinity of color, and I try to embody this secret on the canvas. I'm not looking for style and manner. The motif tells me how to apply paint and what color to use. For me, painting is meditation, a manifestation of emotion in the moment of creativity on the canvas, my synchronization with the World, its vibrations, its beauty in every single moment.

​     Since 2014, after the Russian occupation of Crimea, I have not returned to Gurzuf, but in my thoughts, I am on Gurzuf Hill talking with my dearest friends: the sun, the sea, trees, flowers, Gurzuf cliffs... All the things that awaited me every spring and responded with love in my works.  

     The works presented at the exhibition "My Crimea. Crimea-Ukraine" were written in the Crimea from 1975 to 2014.  The works from the decorative paintings collection of full scale artwork “Spring in the Crimea ", were created in the period from 2014 to 2021 recalling from the memories and based on sketches from nature of the Crimea between 1967 and 2014.

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 Many thanks to my friends, fans, and acquaintances who I encountered throughout my journey through Crimea. They created conditions for my creativity, helped my everyday life, took care of me, helped me discover secret places of the Crimea, which were only known to locals.  Thanks to these sincere people with open hearts, I was able to fully indulge in the creative process.

     

                                                                                                                                                              With love, Nina!