Swan Lake painting by Lada Stukan
This week’s artwork is a vibrant oil painting on canvas of a beautiful swan at sunset, settling on a lake.
Size HWD: 22.8×29.5×0.6 58x75x1.5cm. Style: impressionist, textured, oil on canvas. Materials: Oil, stretched canvas, palette knife. The edges of the canvas are painted so it can be hung directly on a wall with or without a decorative frame.
Here are Lada’s words about her work.
An impressionist painting of a lake landscape. A white swan spread its wings in the soft light of the sunset, surrounded by trees and flowers. This painting was inspired by the wonderful Lakes of the Italian and Swiss Alps and their breath-taking landscapes. So many and so different in their shades of colours in each season. For this painting I used a mixed technique combining painting brushes and palette knives to give the subject its depth in space and I also used unusual colours to give a touch of impressionist style.
About the Artist
My name is Lada Stukan and I was born on 17/05/1971 in Simferopoli (Crimea). From a young age I have always drawn and painted. Art has always been inside me, inspiring me to create my perception of the world and growing up. Painting was always my greatest joy, my keenest interest and gave me strength in difficult moments.
I studied arts for five years at Simeferopoli High School, then four years at the “M.S. Samokish School of Arts. In 1992, I graduated as a ‘Decorative Arts Designer’.
In the following years I worked as a teacher of arts at high schools. I was also an illustrator of books and magazines, a designer of theatrical sets. For seven years, a designer of interiors for hotels and shopping centres. Here I used a unique original technique of mosaic collage of carpet pieces.
In 2009 I moved to Italy where I now live and work, since 2020 painting full-time. The main subject of my artworks is nature in all its diversity, from a single flower to large landscapes.
For most of my paintings I use the oil on canvas technique. However, I am curious and I like to experiment with other existing or new techniques, mediums and materials.
I have participated in several events and exhibitions in Ukraine. Some of my paintings are in private collections in the UE, USA and Canada.
QUESTIONS TO THE ARTIST
Firstly, what is your favourite subject to paint and why?
Flowers and landscapes are my first choice, because they leave room for fantasy and freedom of imagination.
Are the scenes you paint from real life, or imagined? Or both?
Both. Many are from real life to start with, but I also use my imagination. Sometimes my imagination takes over reality and real life becomes pure fantasy and abstraction.
I see you mainly work in oil paints? Is it your preferred medium, if so, why?
I also like the tenderness of water colours and the speed and brightness of acrylic colours. Also, there are countless opportunities offered by the mixed technique of different mediums. However, oil remains my preferred medium because it offers unlimited opportunities to mix colours and a wide range of colours.
Lastly, which other artists, if any, inspire you and why?
Van Gogh inspires me. He is a genius, for his vision of colours and shapes. I also find inspiration from the famous impressionist (Pierre Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, Edgar Dagas) to the lesser-known painters like Berthe Morisot. I also like Gustav Klimt ‘master of golding’. He is a genius in the combined use of realism and decorative details with a deep knowledge of all techniques.
