Natasha Ulyanov

Artist Statement

After years of painting in a traditional, representational style, I have embraced a freer, more intuitive approach, allowing gesture, texture, and bold color to guide my process while staying grounded in the subjects that inspire me most. Whether it’s the human form or the natural world, I am drawn to beauty that carries both emotional depth and visual complexity.
The contours of the human body have always been a foundation in my work, offering endless inspiration through form, tension, and movement. In my ongoing dancer series, I paint from life during rehearsals, working quickly to capture fleeting gestures and the energy of bodies in motion. These immediate studies allow me to translate movement into fluid lines and expressive marks, often serving as the starting point for larger works. Recently, I have begun to abstract the figure, breaking it down into simpler compositions or expressive gestures. This shift has opened up new ways of communicating feeling and energy. Sometimes I reduce the figure to stark black and white to explore balance and contrast, other times, I layer thick impasto to evoke a tactile, emotional response. The act of painting itself, the resistance of texture, the pull of color, has become a language of its own.
In parallel, I have been working on a series that focuses on endangered species. This body of work connects my love of natural forms with a growing concern for the fragility of life on this planet. Using rich texture and a limited palette, I aim to capture the vulnerability and resilience of these animals.
My palette is often deliberately restrained, encouraging me to delve deeper into the interplay of hues and values. I work in watercolor, oils and acrylics, using each medium’s properties to explore new emotional and visual terrain.
As Georgia O’Keeffe once said, “I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way, things I had no words for.” Through painting, I find my voice in gesture, color, and texture.