Bright day in Mindelo Painting

Hi, my name is Dina. I am an artist and … a sailor. Several years ago I became a liveaboard and since that spent most of my time living and traveling on our 40 feet sailboat. My boat is also my studio and most of my drawings and paintings are made from nature during my trips. They convey the atmosphere and character of the place, its energy and are able to take you to that very time and place once you look at the picture - this is what alway happens to me when I turn over the pages of my sketchbooks. From the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, from South Africa to the Caribbean - the colors, the atmosphere are different and this is an endless source of inspiration for me. My painting practice is mostly fast and spontaneous and it needs lots of time spent in plein-air to develop this skill. I also have an open studio on shore, in a charming bay called Kucuk Sarsala in Turkey where I can work on larger paintings and also exhibit my artworks. But even there I love taking my easel out and painting the subtle shades of the sunset sky and the yachts, peacefully resting in the bay. Nature is changing so rapidly and I have never seen it the same! My style was hugely influenced by Impressionism and Monet's idea of "painting the air" is something both inspiring and challenging for me. "Catching impressions" and "travel to paint" is something which describes my practice perfectly. Like many artists with formal education in art, I moved from realism looking for my own approach and visual language to capture what I want to convey. I spent several years studying contemporary watercolor and became quite mastered in it, but my love for experiments and continuous search of something new drives my forward, so you can see that I use different media - charcoal, soft and oil pastel, watercolor and gouache, acrylic and oil. I enjoy the properties and plastics of every material and could not limit myself to the only. I try to update my Saatchi Art gallery and upload as many artworks as I can, but if you see some of my works in social media not listed here, please, do not hesitate to contact me, I will be able to upload them if you are interested. I invite you to join my discovery of this world and will be happy to meet you on social media or in any place on this planet!