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🌫️ The Quiet Power of Grey
What color captures a foggy, enveloping atmosphere better than anything else? For me, it’s definitely grey. Grey is incredibly multifaceted. Working with it taught me a lot about its character and emotional effect. More than any other color, it knows how to adapt to human needs. It becomes an invisible, neutral foundation, a background that feels comfortable to exist within and even to think within. It doesn’t demand attention, doesn’t shout with brightness, and doesn’t try t
Mariia Raskin
3 days ago1 min read


🤎 Discovering the Beauty of a Single Color
This diptych, «Lace Dreamscape», feels especially meaningful to me because it was created entirely using shades of brown, without any contrasting or bold accent colors. While working on it, I challenged myself with a simple question: can an artwork remain expressive and visually captivating while staying within just one color family? Part of me thought I might eventually start adding brighter tones along the way… but interestingly, that moment never came. Instead, the composi
Mariia Raskin
4 days ago1 min read


🌫️ A Different Side of the Tropics
This triptych became my reflection on what tropical nature can feel like. The obvious answer would probably be: lush greenery, bright sunlight, bold contrasts, and vibrant colors 🌿☀️ But what if the tropics are not always like that? What if it’s raining, wrapped in early morning fog, or covered by soft evening shadows? Then the atmosphere changes completely. The tropics become mysterious, quiet, almost impossible to fully grasp. Soft, calm, and comforting in their own way. T
Mariia Raskin
4 days ago1 min read


🌿Calm Tones, Tactile Layers
Working with blue and green hues always feels grounding and balanced. In this stage, I keep building the collage, painting over it intuitively and gently shaping the forms. Every element is handmade, from the very first layer to the final details, so each piece remains completely one of a kind.
Mariia Raskin
5 days ago1 min read


🦋 Imaginary Butterflies, Real Mood
I create butterflies that don’t exist in nature, it keeps the process exciting and lets me explore new creative challenges. I design each color palette and wing pattern myself, and every butterfly carries its own mood and feeling. Also, In my work I combine hand-crocheted lace with acrylic paint, building texture and detail layer by layer. The collection includes a range of tropical butterflies, from bold, high-contrast pieces to more calm, meditative ones, created in closely
Mariia Raskin
5 days ago1 min read


🧵 The Story Behind «Lace Garden»
I named this piece «Lace Garden» because it was the very first artwork where I experimented with hand-crocheted cotton lace as an actual medium in my process. And honestly, first attempts are never simple 😄 My head was full of questions: Will this even work? What should I use to attach the lace? How do I stabilize it so it looks clean and organic within the composition? But the biggest challenge was figuring out how to make these textured lace elements feel natural inside th
Mariia Raskin
5 days ago1 min read


💜 Imagining Gardens on Distant Planets
I absolutely love fantasizing, especially about things we can’t fully know or explain. Sometimes I imagine what kinds of plants might exist on distant planets somewhere far beyond our galaxy. I’m sure their leaves would have unusual colors, mysterious patterns, and forms unlike anything we see on Earth. For my diptych «Galaxy Garden», I chose different shades of purple because this color has always felt deeply connected to the universe for me: galaxies, cosmic energy, and all
Mariia Raskin
5 days ago1 min read


❤️🌹 Taming the Power of Red
Red has always felt like a very complex color to me, filled with explosive and unpredictable energy. It can represent opposite forces at once: the warmth of comforting fire or the intensity of a powerful explosion. In art, everything depends on where the artist chooses to direct that energy. In this diptych, I wanted to guide red into a softer, more peaceful atmosphere. To achieve this, I balanced it with cool blue tones and softened it further with delicate pink shades. The
Mariia Raskin
May 81 min read


👑 Creating the «Royal Garden» Triptych
Sometimes it feels almost impossible to invent a botanical composition using three completely different backgrounds, each with its own mood and texture. But once I begin, intuition takes over and the process starts flowing naturally. In this triptych, I brought together a wide range of brown tones, from warm ochre shades to deeper, cooler reddish-browns. Because of this rich and layered palette, I named the piece «Royal Garden». The triptych works beautifully in contemporary
Mariia Raskin
May 81 min read


🌸 Creating «Venus Gardens»
A small look behind the scenes of my botanical triptych «Venus Gardens». This piece became a special experiment for me because it was the first time I incorporated such a large amount of hand-crocheted lace into one artwork. The final composition grew into a collection of semi-abstract fantasy flowers, almost like plants that could bloom somewhere on an imaginary distant planet. The soft pastel palette brings a feeling of femininity, gentleness, and a touch of fairytale atmos
Mariia Raskin
May 81 min read


🌿 Artist & Artwork in Nature
I wanted to share a small photo series where I appear together with my artworks. Most of the time, I photograph my paintings on their own, sometimes in the studio. But I started to feel that showing the artist alongside the work adds something more personal, it creates a closer, more emotional connection. Nature has always been a huge source of inspiration for me, so placing these pieces in a green, organic setting just felt right.
Mariia Raskin
Apr 221 min read


🎨 Finding Balance in the Process
The creative process doesn’t always follow the original plan, and that’s often where the most interesting results happen. I initially imagined this triptych as a vivid contrast of blue and red. But once I saw the background develop, it felt too sharp, too visually intense. To bring it into balance, I layered a soft blue tone over the red, which immediately changed the atmosphere. The composition started to feel more cohesive, more alive. The final result is a serene and harmo
Mariia Raskin
Apr 191 min read


⚙️ From Line to Character
A glimpse into the way my abstract, fantasy-like portraits are created. This collage shows the early pencil sketches, where I focus on proportions and anatomy, alongside the completed works in color. I never have a fixed vision of the final result or a pre-planned palette. Everything unfolds organically during the process, and the background I choose often plays a decisive role in how the character ultimately appears.
Mariia Raskin
Apr 11 min read


✏️ Sketch vs Final Portrait
A comparison between my pencil sketches and the finished portraits in color. Bringing these imagined characters to life is always an engaging process. I rarely plan the color palette in advance, it usually comes together naturally as I work. Step by step, the drawing evolves into a complete, expressive piece.
Mariia Raskin
Apr 11 min read


🎨 How My Portraits Take Shape
A closer look at how I develop my abstract portraits. What’s interesting is that the idea doesn’t exist beforehand, it reveals itself as I work. I usually begin with a richly textured, colored background, created using water and diluted oil paint. From there, I sketch a simple anatomical structure of the head and paint it in a single hue, exploring different tonal values. This stage helps me build a strong foundation before moving into full color. Then I transfer the image on
Mariia Raskin
Apr 11 min read


✂️ Layering Through Collage
My process often begins with building textured collage elements right on paper. I shape the composition first, then continue working into it with acrylic, adding details, forms, and a sense of rhythm. It’s an engaging, almost playful way of working, where the final result always holds a bit of surprise.
Mariia Raskin
Mar 301 min read


🧡🤎Triptych «COZY OASIS» in Progress
A behind-the-scenes look at how this earthy-toned triptych begins to take shape. I start by creating textured surfaces with fluid oil paint, then introduce hand-crocheted lace and continue building the composition with acrylic. Step by step, the layers come together, forming a rich, tactile piece.
Mariia Raskin
Mar 301 min read
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