Varvara Shevchenko

Varvara Shevchenko is a Ukrainian self-taught artist based in the UK. She was born and grew up in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi (Akkerman), Ukraine, and began painting in 2019, as the world entered the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic — a personal way to cope with stress and difficult emotions that gradually became an inseparable part of her life. She experimented with watercolour, oil and pastel before finding her strongest connection with acrylic.
After relocating to the UK following the outbreak of war in Ukraine, painting became an even more essential language for Varvara — a way to turn feelings too difficult to put into words into something visible, tangible and shared.
Working primarily with acrylic, textured paste and a palette knife, Varvara builds raised, physical surfaces that invite the viewer to experience each piece almost as much through touch as through sight. Her paintings often centre on the human figure, particularly the female form, as a symbol of vulnerability, inner strength and the courage to be oneself; animals — especially horses — appear as symbols of resilience, freedom and the ability to keep moving through difficult circumstances.
Poetry has been part of Varvara's life since childhood, and increasingly info...

Self taught artist.