Julia Lesnichy is a versatile painter working in different mediums – oil, pastel and oil pastel. Her works are mostly plein air landscapes and still life and figurative as well – life drawings and portraits. Julia Lesnichy was immensely influenced by works of French impressionists – Monet, Renoir and Sisley and American impressionist painters – Hassam, Cassatt, Robinson, Twachtman. Julia finds her inspiration in nature, with its elusive beauty being an endless source of excitement for her. Julia’s bold and spontaneous use of colors combined with a broad impasto techniques reveal her passionate perception of nature scenes. In oil pastels Julia developed her own meticulous technique, using broken colors to create a color vibration in her works. Plein air oil, pastel and oil pastel sketches are Julia’s outside endeavors to instantly catch the changing light in a landscape. Alla prima impasto techniques allow her to create a rich and complex color surface, putting one layer of color on the other which results in a subtle color harmony and balance. Julia is originally from Moscow, Russia and received a BA in Linguistics, majoring in English and German at the Moscow Linguistics University. Drawing animals was her usual pastime when she was a five-year old child - she became fond of sketching cats, lions and bears from animal books. In 1998, she began taking drawing and oil painting classes in Russia. In 1999, she came to the USA with her husband and was lucky to take pastel and life drawing classes in Charlottesville, Va. In 2001, she took classes in oil painting with Lois Griffel, an outstanding impressionist painter, in Provincetown, Ma. In 2001, Julia had to go back to Russia and kept on working on her own creating plein air landscapes of Russian nature. “I enjoy painting outside any time of the year, feeling fascinated and engulfed by the challenging beauty of nature, - says Julia, - I am lucky that I have acquired a technique helping me to convey this beauty in my works in a passionate and at the same time diligent way, completing richly textured paintings right on the spot. Working outside can’t be compared with working in a studio: studio work does not give you that freshness of perception. While painting en plein air, I also feel closely attached to all basic nature elements – water, wind, fire and wood, and can sense their energies penetrating my entire being and my creations. I strongly believe that my works manifest not only my own energy, but also the healing energy of nature.” Julia Lesnichy is constantly broadening the range and subject of her work, trying urban scenes, life charcoal drawings of human figures and portraits. Many of her oil pastel sketches can be considered as parts of a diary, portraying scenes from different countries which Julia visited as a tourist. You can see red roof houses in Croatia, narrow streets of the ancient French city of Avignon, a small boat house in the Maldives, a night street in Salzburg. “Julia has a unique ability to render spontaneous and controlled color in her works, - says Valery Tkachenko from Kazakhstan, a buyer and admirer of her works, - They reveal Julia’s open-hearted character, sincerity and uninhibited nature of a child. Each piece speaks for itself, inviting a viewer to appreciate colors in his/her own way.”
I also offer oil and pastel classes in the Charlottesville and Crozet area, Va
