STYLE | Art


Hand stitched detail: Morning Sun


Chelmsford Arts Society. “It was the best thing ever. People were so good, so funny. There was always somebody who showed some technique.”


Galina was astounded when she sold her first painting. “They could use their money to go abroad, buy something tasty – but they chose my painting!”


Old and new: Dragons vs Irons


‘You gradually build up colour. The whitish layer underneath sends light throughout. It really attracted me’


had escaped the Soviet-ruled Czech Republic for Britain. He was working for the Ford Motor Company in Dunton and, like Galina, his work involved travel.


“After four or five years of writing to each other we married and I came to the UK, to Chelmsford.”


There, she tried to get work. “The lady at the Job Centre said ‘Your education is not recognised here. You could load shelves in Tesco.’” The former banking analyst declined. To alleviate her boredom Mark bought her books and DVDs on drawing and painting. “I didn’t like my drawings because I imagined one thing and drew something different!”


They were posted to Chihuahua in 40 styleofwight.co.uk


Mexico, a place exciting to Galina for its strong colours and contrasts. “The artists there paint in any colour. So my challenge was to do something like that.”


On the internet she explored different styles and techniques, and followed an American artist teaching the technique of Dutch Old Masters. This precise building of layers to create depth and glow appealed to her:


“The first layer you paint in amber, then all the shadows and tones – that’s called the dead layer – then you gradually build up colour. The whitish layer underneath sends light throughout. It really attracted me.”


By the time they returned to Chelmsford she was ready to join the


When her husband retired they decided to move, discovering the Isle of Wight and then a dilapidated bungalow in St Lawrence, which they renovated. The new ‘upstairs’ has a little studio that overlooks the sea, and as well as her brushes, easel and oils (her preferred medium) she has shelves groaning with antiques and curios. “What I’ve found with British people is they love old things, and I do too. I love painting them – they have so much history behind them. In Russia, everything is very new, that’s what is valued.”


One much loved object, a sturdy copper kettle, was bought from Burfields of Ventnor – who later sold the painting she made of it! A contoured glass vase (‘Lemonade’) and a square oil bottle (‘Blue Label’) feature the distortions of objects seen through them, but Galina brushes off suggestions of particular skill in capturing glass:


“I don’t look at it like a glass but almost like an abstract,” she says. By leaving raw the canvas edges of her contemporary compositions she adds a sense of timelessness. She has a masterful touch, yet she is still surprised at other people’s acclaim, and was shocked when she won a prize from the Society of All Artists.


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