I express my thoughts and feelings through allegories. Roads, bikes, sails, birds and other objects in my paintings have symbolic meaning. A road can represent life journey. Wind is associated with anxiety and awaiting changes. A broken umbrella is telling a story of broken heart. Sailing is following or fighting for your dream. I like discovering new objects with “meaning” to use in my works, like a poet uses allegories.

Born in Kiev, Ukraine, I became infected with the drawing virus at a very early age when I discovered on my parents’ bookshelf a book of caricatures by Herluf Bidstrup, famous Danish artist/caricaturist. So my early experimentation with art was in drawing caricatures of my classmates, teachers and other locals. I studied painting at the Kiev Art School. In 1987 I graduated from the Kiev State Institute of Arts with a degree in architecture, worked as an architect after graduation and later changed my career into graphic design.

I return to my passion, painting, many years later, when in 2000 I immigrated with my family to New Zealand. I began experimenting with different mediums and techniques to move away from the representational approach, participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions run in Wellington - WAG (Wellington Artist Group), Watercolour NZ, Academy of Fine Arts, South Coast Gallery and Portraiture Award exhibitions. The NZ Art Show (Wellington) is my favorite event. I have participated in the show as a Single Artist Wall exhibitor every year since it started in 2004.

Most of my works are based on first impression sketches and caricatures. I let them travel straight from my sketchbook onto a canvas with very little changes and corrections. In regards to colour - I should confess to a great love of green in all its shades. However there was a certain shift in my colour palette after moving to Australia in 2010.

My works can also be viewed on the Bluethumb, Australian online gallery www.bluethumb.com.au and on my website www.tetyanasarts.com

I hope you enjoy visiting my site, feel free to send me a message with any query you may have.