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Hello and welcome to my inner creative space. Shall we enter into the river of colours, shapes, lights and shadows, emotions and meanings.. together?

but...

If we are going together on this journey, let me first introduce myself.

Galina Stefanova holding garden sm.jpg

My name is Galina. I am an artist - a painter and an art therapist.

Drawing and painting was my first love and came to me in a natural way as breathing. My first years in life I spent in a rural area in Bulgaria, where simple life and untamed nature started shaping my heart. At four I moved to the civilization of the "big city" with its ability of having pencils and white doors to scribble on. My biggest discovery at that time was a box of watercolours and brushes, which a cousin showed me once. It took time until I had a set of my own, and until then I was trying to adjust different "tools" like sticks and food colour tablets to my desire to paint. I had curiosity to explore the world around me, and excitement to document these explorations on paper ... and sometimes on doors.

 

This excitement brought me to university, where I studied fine art, and later on led my way to London, where I continued studying art therapy. The blend of the two professions happened naturally, as I had been exploring connections between the surrounding world and my inner world for many years.

In my art searches I became more and more fascinated by internal and external transformations. I "zoom in" to the scene, then seek the "heart" of the object and the meaning behind. I search the reflection in my own heart, build connections and structure, and look for feelings which could explain the attraction to and the similarities with the object. This is an unconscious process at first, which gradually emerges to the surface.

 

The range of emotions I explore is wide: feelings of freedom or restriction to it; joy or uneasiness; peace or struggle. My searches have been influenced by psychological and psychotherapeutic ideas about our inner world (part of it semi-conscious or unconscious), which colours our thoughts, feelings, decisions and acts. Ideas about love, peace, acceptance and forgiveness also find place in my art. Two of the artists I have been inspired by, are Rene Magritte and David Hockney. Very different in styles, the art of both of them carry strong emotions.

 

My favourite media are oil or acrylic on canvas, and soft pastels on paper. All techniques in these media allow me to explore three dimensionality of the nature, the depth of the background and the clarity in detail of the foreground in my landscape, still life and portrait compositions. The availability of working in layers and blending shapes and colours help me to include my own perspective in the scene. Therefore, the contemporary art I create, although inspired by nature, carries my unique characteristics and quality.

 

My hope is that my work carries a multi-layered meaning, and that transformation happens in your eyes every time you approach it. The ideal place for my art would be the personal space of someone's home.

 

That place might be in your home.

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I've chosen this painting for its seeming calmness of lush foliage of a garden on a rainy day contrasted with gentles of white flowers. I'd love my garden to look like this if I had one!


I like to look at this painting first thing in the morning,  when from the window I can only see the grey sky.

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