Galina Zastava

Galina is originally from Moscow, Russia. She worked as a financial analyst in Moscow banks and when she got married she moved to England in 2006. Her husband's job took them to Mexico for two years and while there her husband bought her several books and DVDs on painting and drawing and he inspired her to try some of the techniques. Galina always admired old Masters' paintings, especially 16th & 17th century Dutch painters. She had a few lessons and started to learn their technique, meantime she tried other mediums, pencils, watercolours, pastels, acrylics. She enjoyed painting and drawing almost anything, but her favourite subjects is still life, flowers and animals.

When Galina returned from Mexico she joined Chelmsford Art Society and it gave her a lot of encouragement to pursue and improve her techniques. While there she tried oil and it was as if it was made just for her. The perfect medium.

Galina still likes to work in old Masters style, as she really enjoys painting light and the way it creates forms and textures. But now she like to use old Masters' technique for painting modern still life. This multi layers technique lets the light come through layers of paint and bounce back from white underpainting, creating the transparency and purity of colours.