'I do not try to depict nature; rather, I study nature so I can do what nature does. I want to directly experience the energy of growth, movement, and transformation. A completed painting is a living, breathing organism that invites the viewer into universal connection.'
Lilia Orlova‑Holmes's paintings are expressionist, semi‑abstract interpretations of nature-vivid, emotive, and infused with movement. Her canvases often evoke dreamlike, fantastical garden-scapes, rendered through gestural brushwork, luminous colour palettes, and shifting textures that suggest both memory and emotion.
Stylistically, Lilia's influences are rooted in Impressionism-especially Monet's poetic renderings of light and water-and the bold colour sensibility of Matisse. She also embraces the fluidity and spontaneity of Japanese calligraphy, allowing marks to flow with expressive freedom. Critics have praised her capacity to blend ethereal beauty with dynamic movement-brush strokes that seem to 'fall off the canvas,' bringing 'dreamy romance' to life.
Her creative process is immersive and intuitive. She speaks of not merely depicting nature but becoming it-studying its rhythms so she can embody growth, movement, and transformation in paint. From a 'dormant seed' on a blank canvas, she allows the initial impulse to bloom organically, without judgment or striving for perfection. For Lilia, 'constant movement and transformation are perfect enough'. Each artwork, she says, becomes a living, breathing organism, inviting viewers to feel a universal connection.
Her recent works deepen this expressive freedom, moving further into fluid abstraction while retaining figuration's emotional core. They explore internal meaning through nature's forms, creating compositions that pulsate with life and invite personal interpretation. Lilia sees her painting as an independent form of life which she helps bring into existence.