Polina Tereshina (Artist)

From a hair-covered woman leaping with joy to a genderless figure with a scraped, bleeding knee, I’m a huge fan of Russian-born artist Polina Tereshina's whimsical, pastel-colored paintings! Each image is a visual treat filled with quirky characters who may come across as strange or surreal at first, but if you just sit with her paintings for a little bit, you quickly realize that there is a lot of truth underneath all that weirdness! Polina’s world may look bizarre, but the emotional weight it conveys couldn’t be more real!

I love the way Polina poses her figures against minimal backgrounds, forcing the audience to focus on the intensity of the characters. It’s as if the people in her paintings have been plucked out of their lives and dropped onto the paper, forcing the viewer to fill in the blanks about who they are and what they’ve experienced. You can see more of Polina's incredible artwork on her website and on Instagram. She shares her inspirations below. Thanks, Polina! ~Erin