Flower Power

REDSEA Gallery’s newest artist is Ukrainian IRA VOLKOVA, a graduate of the Kharkov Art College and Kiev National Academy of Fine Arts. Ira lives in Kiev and is well-known for her hyper-realistic yet ethereal paintings of pink peonies. We find out more about the person behind the canvas

Tell us a bit about your background and how you discovered your love for art and painting.

I grew up in the south of Ukraine in a small town. I can say that my childhood was happy and bright; it seems to me that during that period I accumulated so much sunlight that I still give it back in my paintings.

I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember. It was enough for my parents to give me a sheet of paper and pencils – and I was busy for several hours. So I had no difficulties choosing a profession; from early childhood, I firmly knew that I would be an artist.

Most of your paintings feature pink peonies – and we’re told you even grow your own flowers! What do these flowers symbolise to you?

I started painting flowers as still-life paintings. During college, I made a lot of copies of paintings in the Flemish style, but the desire to do something new, the search for my own style, led me to want to concentrate on the depiction of flowers in large formats.