Retro Style Monochrome Portrait of Young Woman in Swimsuit Painting

I'm from UKRAINE. I continue to paint blossom nature, flowers, peaceful landscapes, and beautiful women. I believe in art that brings joy, love, and light to our reality. Through the chaos of the cruel war in Ukraine, I visualize in my artworks the wonderful life we had and will have here, in Ukraine, and every place in our world, I'm sure. All my International parcels during wartime (USA, Europe, Great Britain, India) were delivered within 2-3 weeks. My name is Iryna Baklanova, and I am a self-taught artist based in Kyiv, Ukraine. My primary mediums are oil and acrylic paints. I've loved drawing ever since I was a little girl, but I didn't pick up the brush again until I was 40 and quit my job at the bank. With a stroke of luck, I rediscovered my love for art while completing a drawing course as part of a Web design certification. That was in 2016, and I can't imagine my life without painting ever since. In 2017, I opened my first online shop. My artworks are now in several online galleries; over 50 have found new homes in Ukraine and overseas. My process is best described as "creative play". I dwell in the intuitive, the abstract. I paint sights from traveling, using my personal experiences as inspiration. I put flowers onto canvases, which bloom in my head. I am partial to waterscapes, boats, and city views derived from fond memories. I also do portraits, predominantly female and many of them are of women in my life. Some of my work is more abstract and less about photo-realistic detail. Although the lack of the latter is persistent across all my creations — I strive for a more stylized, impressionistic look. I see the purpose of art as reflecting a part of my soul on canvas and sharing it with the world. From one of my reviews: "...art that takes realism beyond reality, making a romantic statement about the beauty of life...". I aspire for that to be true about every piece of art I put out there.