Elina Dmitruk
“I want these paintings to feel personal to the viewer, to connect with the image. And, I want people to feel peace and hope when they experience my paintings.”
Take a look at Elina Dmitruk’s Instagram page, and you can see the effort she makes to connect the viewer with her images and creations. Social media allows creatives to share a closer look into how and why an artist does what they do. Part of the creation process means having the courage to expose one’s true self as an act of expression, and such transparency can be frightening. Yet, Elina takes this element of creativity another step further by sharing her process, insight, and inspiration—adding another dimension to her already stimulating creations.
Elina is a Ukrainian-Latvian creative based in Seattle, WA. She was born in Latvia, and her family immigrated to the United States when she was three. Elina knew art was her calling when she saw it build a valuable childhood friendship that turned her into the person she is today.
There is no standard path, as Elina points out. “Art is a very individualized pursuit with trial and error in the unknown,” but she uses the words of C.S. Lewis as inspiration for her approach.
“The first demand any work of art makes upon us is surrender. Look. Listen. Receive. Get yourself out of the way. (There is no good asking first whether the work before you deserves such a surrender, for until you have surrendered you cannot possibly find out.)”
Her calling would soon become a reality. Through her creative exploration, Elina learned to follow her curiosity and listen to her art which eventually led to her dream of working as a professional oil painter. Elina’s paintings use a mix of traditional elements and modern techniques, and her subjects range from animals captured in delicate photographic detail, harsh-mountain peaks textured with a palette knife, and abstract portraits composed with subtle vibrance.
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