Oksana Veber was born in Barnaul in the Altaj region of Russia. She has lived in the United Kingdom since 2010 having also spent several years living in the Czech Republic.
Oksana studied art at the Briansk Art College in Russia and the Kiev Academy of Fine Arts in the Ukraine. She also gained a BA in Practical Psychology from the Inter-Regional Academy of Personnel Management in Kiev. Oksana is a Member of the International Association of Commercial Artists.
Oksana has been drawing since the age of four and exhibiting since 1987. Her paintings are in galleries and private collections in several European countries and also the USA, Australia, South Africa and Israel.
Oksana’s painting style has undergone a transformation over the years. Her first paintings were landscapes which reflected her fascination with Daoism and other Eastern philosophies and incorporated themes such as peace and harmony. Some of her more recent works contain the same themes but through the portrayal of women in a warm and positive style. Oksana’s subtle use of colours ranging from warm wood to gold and glimmering coppers gives these pictures a unique and sensual aura. For the past seven years Oksana has participated in art workshops in Croatia and Bulgaria which has enabled her to pursue her love of nature and how to work in harmony with the natural world. Oksana’s style continues to develop with her paintings becoming more abstract over time. Her use of colour, line and form demonstrates the communication and connection which exists between the figures and backgrounds in her pictures whilst at the same time conveying movement that brings each work to life.
Oksana’s Statement:-
“I continue to be inspired by the beauty and harmony which exists in nature and my paintings are an attempt to recreate and capture this. My earliest memories from childhood are of me sitting in a tree, overlooking a ravine, watching the first rays of the morning sun as they mix with ribbons of mist rising from the fields of tall grass before slowly fading away together.
Irrespective of whether I am painting a woman’s body, a still life or a landscape I try to use lines and colours to record this feeling of harmony on a canvas. Pictures often come to me in my dreams at night – with the combination of colours and the composition so very real. When I wake I quickly sketch the images I have seen in my dreams before they disappear in the daylight.”
Oksana currently works from her studio in South London and her website can be viewed at www.veberoksana.com
Koraljka Alavanja, Zadar, 2012
Every one of us longs for peace, equivalence and harmony, and turns to different sources in order to come close to this – sources such as natural beauties, meditation, exploration of spirit or sound. The painter Oksana Veber finds her peace in the beauty of landscape, still nature, portrait of a woman, which, transfused into a harmony of colours and shapes, continue their life as an inspiration for a work of art. Guided by this urge for equivalence and investigating themes such as peace, harmony and emptiness, the artist explored Taoism and eastern philosophy and transferred her longing and revelation onto the canvas. The echoes of these influences can be recognized primarily in the painting approach that the artist uses to create background for her figures, defined only by colouristic effects.
In her earlier works the colours are expressive and powerful, then they slowly mellow down into pastel shades of blue-gray and ochre in gradations, only to almost disappear into monochrome of warm nuances of gray infiltrated by whiteness as a light effect in her most recent cycle. Colours applied in wide brushstrokes and unobtrusively combine merging into an abstraction, which, in some paintings, could stand as a complete work of art in the manner of abstract Expressionism. On this background, the artist draws figuration using thin, playful, almost calligraphic black strokes that gives sparkle to the background's meditative peacefulness and opens space for a new story.
In most of her paintings, female portrait occurs as the main motif. It presented as a melancholic yet sensual figure with full lips, almond-shaped eyes looking down, head gently leaning, trapped in her dreamy, fairytale world. On one hand this secrecy is owed to the poetics that can be traced in Jugendstil or Vienna Seccession, and on the other to the Russian fantasy that we find in Chagall for instance. In her new cycle of works we are often find double or multiple portraits in one painting, but the figures do not communicate with each other, nor with the viewer neither by gesture nor by gaze; instead they open paths towards themselves by subtly communicating with the object of their attention – usually a musical instrument or a cat, a bird, a bowl with fruit. These also appear as the main motif, painted contourly by the same quick, skillful strokes of black line, with only some of the elements emphasized by colour.
From her first paintings until today, the artist has evolved her work using the same philosophical outlook and with the same motivation, changing it in style and exploring the painting medium by combining the influences of different art periods that she successfully adjusts to her own spirit and inspiration found within.
Koraljka Alavanja 2013
Pejzaž, naročito morski krajolik jedan je od čestih motiva na platnima slikarice Oksane Veber. Na ovogodišnjoj izložbi nazvanoj „Morski san“ možemo vidjeti slike nastale u periodu od 2007. godine do danas, što govori o autoričinoj stalnoj fascinaciji prirodom, njenom postojanošću i mijenama, mirnoćom, a opet stalnim kretanjem i pulsiranjem. Raspon radova prikazuje autoričinu stalnu inovaciju teme pejzaža te razvoj i bogatstvo njezinog slikarskog izraza. Radovi su većinom nastali upravo ovdje, na otoku Ugljanu, u Kukljici i prikazuju neke nama poznate motive; otočić Ošljak, rivu, marinu, ali i one općenitije morske motive, poneke dovedene gotovo do apstrakcije. Raniji radovi prikazuju najčešće upravo pogled iz Preka na otok Ošljak u svim njegovim mjenama vezanim za dnevni ciklus i atmosferske prilike do refleksije svijetla u ljeskanju nemirne površine mora i treperenje noćnih svjetala, prikazanih ekspresivnim potezima, snažnim efektima uz bogatu, odvažnu uporabu boje kao središnje koncentracije slike. U potezima se točno odražavaju atmosferske prilike i promijenjiva kvaliteta svjetala, a sama forma sačinjena je od titrajućeg kolorita dok je upravo ta impresija osnovni sadržaj slike. Kasnija djela utišanijeg su izraza, više u impresionističkoj maniri no i dalje ih odlikuje spontani, intuitivni pristup slikanju i izražavaju konstantnu potragu za umjetnošću koja odražava suptilno poimanje umjetnosti. Ciklus slika iz 2012. godine po svom je slikarskom pristupu poseban. Na tim slikama forma je građena plohama boja obrubljenim tamnim linijma, što evocira na virtaj, ali odabirom boja te unutarnjom, duhovnom dimenzijom i mističnošću priziva filozofiju spiritualne umjetnosti kakvu je zagovarao i Vasiliy Kandinskiy. Korištenje plavičastih i plavo-sivih tonova u kombinaciji s žutim, oker, crvenkastim daje dinamičan kontrast, ali i upućuje na promišljanje o odnosima toplo – hladno, ekscentrično-koncentrično, nebesko-zemaljsko... Oksana Veber svojim morskim pejzažima nudi nam naoko oprečne, ali ipak usuglašene dojmove – kontemplaciju i ekspresiju osjećaja, što vješto postiže kombiniranjem poteza i boja.
OKSANA VEBER - ARTIST PAINTER - MY WORKS 2013
Recent works.
Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen and welcome to this exhibition of my works at the Prachen Museum. I would like to begin by expressing my sincere gratitude and appreciation to the Director and his staff for the kind invitation to display my pictures here and for all their help and assistance with organizing the event.
Having previously exhibited at the Culture House in 2009 the opportunity to appear again in Pisek was too good to refuse. Although originally from Russia, and currently based in the United Kingdom, I lived in the Czech Republic for 12 years. I love the country and the Czech people and chose to raise my son here. I am glad to be back. It feels like I have come home!
The theme of my exhibition is “Sea Songs” and many of the pictures on display here were painted on one of my regular visits to the island of Ugljian in Croatia. Until a few days ago my pictures were being held up on the border between Croatia and Slovenia and there was a real possibility they would not make it here in time for the exhibition and I must thank my friends for arranging their transportation at the last moment.
I have always been inspired by the beauty and harmony which exists in nature and my paintings are an attempt to recreate and capture this. As a four year old girl back in Russia I can remember sitting in a tree, overlooking a ravine, watching the first rays of the morning sun as they mixed with ribbons of mist rising up from the fields of tall grass before slowly fading away together.
Whatever I am painting – a woman’s body, a still life, a landscape – I try to use lines and colours to record this feeling of harmony on canvas. Pictures often come to me in my dreams at night, with the combination of colours and the composition so very real. The moment I wake up I quickly sketch the images I have seen in my dreams before they disappear in the daylight.
And so, in conclusion, I would once again like to thank the Director for this wonderful opportunity and also to thank you all for coming along tonight. I hope you enjoy the exhibition.
Oksana Veber was born in Barnaul in the Altaj region of Russia. She has lived in the United Kingdom since 2010 having also spent several years living in the Czech Republic.
Oksana studied art at the Briansk Art College in Russia and the Kiev Academy of Fine Arts in the Ukraine. She also gained a BA in Practical Psychology from the Inter-Regional Academy of Personnel Management in Kiev. Oksana is a Member of the International Association of Commercial Artists.
Oksana has been drawing since the age of four and exhibiting since 1987. Her paintings are in galleries and private collections in several European countries and also the USA, Australia, South Africa and Israel.
Oksana’s painting style has undergone a transformation over the years. Her first paintings were landscapes which reflected her fascination with Daoism and other Eastern philosophies and incorporated themes such as peace and harmony. Some of her more recent works contain the same themes but through the portrayal of women in a warm and positive style. Oksana’s subtle use of colours ranging from warm wood to gold and glimmering coppers gives these pictures a unique and sensual aura. For the past seven years Oksana has participated in art workshops in Croatia and Bulgaria which has enabled her to express her fascination with the beauty of nature through a series of paintings with sea themes.
Oksana currently works from her studio in South London and her website can be viewed at www.veberoksana.com
Oksana Veber Paintings
www.veberoksana.com