Inna Petrashkevich lives in Orsha, Belarus. A small town in a small Eastern European country, it is one of those places seemingly untouched and unspoiled by civilization. Time has slowed down in Orsha, and the 21st century feels like the 18th.
Inna Petrashkevich, a contemporary Belarusian artist, received her Masters in Fine Arts and Graphics Design from Belorussian State Pedagogical University. She has been teaching art painting and (mainly watercolors) for over 30 years. Her primary focus is on watercolor painting, but she has also worked on illustration and graphic design.
Her work is watercolor paintings are in private collections in the UK, Cyprus, Latvia, Estonia, Norway, Russia, Israel, Ukraine, and the United States. She regularly hosts master-classes in Minsk and Moscow, where she teaches her watercolor technique. Inna paints almost every day, and is followed by over thirty thousand people on Instagram.
Far away from civilization and modern luxuries, perhaps it is in Orsha that it is easier to notice the small plants and creatures in her garden. The town is surrounded by one of the densest and oldest forests in Europe, Polesia. It is here where everything is breathing around you. We might not hear their sounds, but the plants and flowers are breathing too. Her watercolor paintings are not of inanimate, merely colorful objects:she is painting living creatures, flowers that are not merely beautiful and which give us joy, but which are ephemeral. Irina paints flowers that dissolve in the morning fog. Floating like clouds, they are here one second and disappear the next.
Her subjects are not merely nature and beauty, but the emotions evoked by spending time and attention focused on the sights, sounds, and energies of her forest home. Quiet and serene, her studies nonetheless suggest and underscore the wistful and fleeting nature of time - her artwork captures the evanescence of the short but beautifully evocative moments she captures for us: a memento mori exemplified by fragile blooms.
Orsha, Belarus. 2021. Watercolor on paper
Last Year's Summer Wind
February 25. Physalis, a flowering plant in the nightshade family, mostly grows in warm and subtropical regions. A small, yellow or orange fruit similar to a small tomato is enclosed in a papery husk.
The exuberance of Irina’s technique points to her love of both painting and her subject matter. Note the multiple layers of this artwork: shades of atmospheric reds, yellows and blue in the background, followed by the "crown jewel" fruits of Physalis. Both celebratory and refined, this piece speaks to the rarity of this plant in Belarus and its subsequent importance as a blossom to be treasured.
Orsha, Belarus. 2021. Watercolor on paper
Lavender Tales
February 27. Lavender (or Lavandula) is an aromatic plant in the mint family of plants (along with basil, rosemary, sage, oregano, thyme, and others). It is native to Eurasia and grows from the Canary Islands to India.
A painter who works daily, year round, Inna painted this artwork on February 27th, in the middle of the cold Belarussian winter. These are therefore dried lavender branches and flowers from the previous year’s growing season: both a memento of the past and a harbinger of the coming spring.
Orsha, Belarus. 2020. Watercolor on paper
A tree branch
April 30. The end of the long winter has come, and spring is in full swing. This plant is most likely a cherry plum, with blossoms somewhat similar to the well-known cherry blossom.Cherries and plums are both members of Prunus family and are celebrated heralds of the coming of spring in many cultures.
The bold strokes of this artwork, and the strong palette, focus our eyes on the papery white blooms, providing a tangle of greenery against which they can shine Irina is directing our eye upward, the geometric curving of the branches suggesting both strength and positivity in the coming season.
Orsha, Belarus. 2021. Watercolor on Paper
May Tulips are saying their goodbyes
May 29. Tulips are spring flowers with a long history of cultivation. The word "tulip" is thought to have been derived from the Persian word for "turban", which it may have been thought to resemble. Originally native to Southern Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East, tulips were cultivated in Constantinople in the 11th century and spread across Europe.
As Inna talks about this work on her Instagram,
"Just when I finally got in the mood for May and tulips, both are suddenly disappearing right in front of my eyes! How unfair!"
The loose brushstrokes of this artwork echo her sentiments, as the blossoms seem to be disintegrating in front of our eyes, carried off by an unseen late summer breeze - and reminding us of their ephemeral beauty.
Orsha, Belarus. 2020. Watercolor on paper
Peas and Nasturtiums
July 27. Nasturtium (or Tropaeolum) is native to South and Central America. It was imported to Europe by the Spanish in the 16th century. The plant was named by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus as it reminded him of an old tradition:
"After victory in battle, the Romans erected a trophy pole (ortropaeum, from the Greek tropaion, source of English "trophy") on which the vanquished foe's armour and weapons were hung. The plant's round leaves reminded Linnaeus of shields, and its flowers of blood-stained helmets."
Nasturtiums and Peas are often planted together as companion plants.
Inna's technique here combines watercolors, ballpoint pen, and ink as she experiments with different mediums and paper (here, cotton).
Orsha, Belarus. 2018. Watercolor on paper
Last Leaves
December 6. Linden (or Tilia cordata) is a tree native to most of Europe. Widely cultivated in North America, it is often used as a substitute for the native Tilia Americana (American Linden or basswood). In the US, Linden is widely planted as urban trees. Prior to the advent of firearms, it was commonly used for making shields.
"Last Leaves" was painted in early December, 2018, the time when most trees shed their leaves in Eastern Europe to conserve energy and water for the long and cold winter. This shedding of the leaves also helps trees to pollinate in the spring : wind-blown pollen can travel longer distances and reach more trees.
Note how Inna's palette changes here to a muted, almost monochrome scheme, echoing the wintry fading of nature outside.
Orsha, Belarus. 2021. Watercolor on paper
Summer Mosaic
January 20. A rose is a woody flowering perennial plant. In ancient Greece, the rose was closely associated with the goddess Aphrodite, the goddess of love, lust, beauty, pleasure, and passion.
From Inna (painted in January, 2021),
"I suspect that winter is going to last for quite some time. But, as soon as the January sun peeped out, I started dreaming of summer sun and summer warmth."
Irina here uses roses as a metaphor for warmth and desire - a fantasy bouquet on which we project our hopes and dreams for the future. Far from merely decorative ornamentals, prettily marching across the surface, her artwork speaks to the deep longing common across cultures for connection, for hope, and for pleasure in the days ahead.
Polesia
Polesia is one of the last and largest remnant of the once immense primeval forest that formerly stretched across the European Plain.
A rare surviving example of this ecosystem, Polesia has amazing biodiversity. It is home to packs of Wolves, Wild Boar, and European Bison, Europe's heaviest land animal that became almost extinct in the early 20th century.
Europe's Amazon
Some call Polesia “Europe's Amazon” for its expansive wetlands, swamps, peatlands, forests, bogs, marshes, and lakes. Three major European rivers start in this region and carry water and life to the rest of Eastern Europe. The remoteness of Polesia shaped and preserved a unique culture, traditions, and folklore.
Polesia is full of life. Unique, wild and untouched.
