* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.
Larisa Ilieva graduated in 1996 from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Veliko Tarnovo, the ancient capital of Bulgaria. The city still marked by the classical traditions of Orthodox culture – frescoes and icons – influenced early works Larisa Ilieva. At the same time, her work turned to the Russian classical school, responding to natural interest in the culture of his mother, a native of Volgograd. The combination of these influences is embodied in the technique of pastel perfectly suited to the expression of his sensitivity and his reverie. During these years, she has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Bulgaria, France and the United States. She became a member of the Pastel Association of France where she received many awards.
Larisa explains her work by saying, “I begin my work like a nonsense game of chaos patterns that appear by chance on the surface of the canvas. Then step by step, day after day, new patterns appear over, like the events of my life appear over the past. Some have real forms, some are fluid and unstable. Colors are in vivid contrast or in deep flu. Things develop like in life, clear and strong in front or disappearing in the far distance of memory.”
