Yulia Lisitsyna
In her more than 25 years-spinning practice of a watercolour artist, graphic and ornamental designer, she put her skills and experience into teaching at Ottawa School of Art (since 2016), where she shares with students her ability to create lustful watercolours, to explore the picturesque manner, applying with bold and colourful acrylic brushstrokes and precise, meticulous drawings.
Her first steps in the professional art career happened to become visible during her “previous life” in Moscow, Russia, as she mentions her studies in the Fine Art college, years spent as a ceramic artist, co-owner of a ceramic art studio and an artist, working on the permanent contract with a Paleontological Museum in Moscow. “International exhibitions, big projects, guided and supported by the local municipalities, all that steps and accomplishments made me feel more familiar with modern, contemporary trends and tendencies, dominating around the globe – and I will be so glad to bring all these nuances to my artworks, to share all that with my students and with my audience,” - she said.
Since 2017, right after she got her international credentials re-evaluated and enhanced in Ottawa School of Art, she is also teaching in the Glebe Community Centre and in the Abbotsford House. “The moments when our attendees feel that their accomplishments look really professional, striking or worth exposing around Ottawa, are such the best outcome that every art instructor ever dreamed of; that is why we do our creative researches, explore variety of techniques, just to have a chance to share it with all of our students” - she says.
Being a devoted craft-maker, she represents her decorative artworks at the ByWard Market, being an artist-vendor since 2016. Yulia’s the most recent solo exhibitions have been introduced in downtown core, around the Somerset\Bank Str., in the vitrines of the Primecorp (since March 18 up to May 3, 2019), in the Lee Matasi Gallery, on the walls of the BlueBird café (solo-show “First Tokens Of The Spring”, 2019), while her big solo show took place on June 2018 in Trinity Art Gallery, Shenkman Arts Centre.
“I want to reach the best results with traditional materials. My professional interests and areas of investigation include creating artworks that may contain elements of medieval patterns that might have been seen as allusions to the well-known fables of mythological sujets. I am seeking for the vibrancy, reverberation and shimmering light that so often we see around us, admire, though are so often unable to capture – and I am trying to render it in all my realistic or impressionistic art pieces.”
“Indeed, all the most recent calamities, the despicable behavior of Russia put me in an uneasy position, to say at least – indeed, so often I feel ashamed to be named Russian in origin; my hopes and personal commitments, as well as financial donations will be aimed to help to Ukrainian refugees, who got a chance to be sheltered in Canada – likewise my family did 14 years ago. I am happy that I have a chance to share all skills and techniques I’ve gained throughout my professional career, to contribute all the best out of the traditional and crispy-new European techniques, trends and styles; especially in professional fields such as illustration, water-based media and decorative design. Ottawa Valley has a vibrant, thriving artistic community, and I will do my best to help it sparkle in the full radiance of beauty”.
