Lara Volkonskaya

Enter Lara Volkonskaya Gallery

Lara Volkonskaya, a skilled painter and designer of exquisite haute couture who recreates famous paintings by the masters of art history as dignified homage, on silk. In order to recreate a timeless and unforgettable masterwork seen by millions, an artist has to have enough confidence and personality to make a statement with their own style and materials. Lara’s Homage to the Masters; literal and lyrical brush paintings on silk are inspired by original artworks of prominence that are in the best museums throughout the world.

Born to a Soviet diplomat, Lara spent her childhood travelling internationally, being exposed to many different cultures, exploring museums, galleries and fashion around the world. The work of some artists she became acquainted with spoke so strongly to Lara that she went on to study art at the Moscow Art Academy.

As she progressed as an artist, Lara mastered the incredibly demanding technique of silk painting, requiring extreme focus and patience. Using this technique, Lara began painting wonderful homages to the artists that so deeply inspired her, these “silken encores” celebrate the original artists and capture the spirit of the original work, imbued with her own creative energy.

Lara's versatility and fluency in adopting different painter’s styles is amazing, as she manages to reinterpret an artists’ painting character with great competence. The echoed cliché that nothing is original, that artists reprocess the work of previous generations, recreating styles, and trends misses an important aspect of the fact that works from art history, make ideal mentors.

Many embrace the work of other artists as an endorsement of their consummate significance, creating wonderful works in homage to their timeless influences. As does Lara, her works are not verbatim copies, but honest and accurate renderings in the eloquent spirit of the original work. Lara’s are paintings from the grateful and appreciative soul of an artist in admiration, and the nature of her creative process is respectfulness.

Lara, poised in personifying the work of the great master’s work, captures the true essence of the painting in a language all her own.

Lara’s graceful brush deftly caresses waves and pools of color on the delicate gossamer material, silk, a challenging, unforgiving painting medium. The idea of painting on silk came to he while living in New York. I became acquainted with Japanese culture through reading ancient Japanese poetry. In ancient Japan and Asia people who represented high society wore exclusively silk clothes and wrote poetry about color combinations of their clothes. Silk was extremely expensive at that time, and was a luxury to own.

The work titled "Star Rise" is a silken encore, an homage to Van Gogh and his painting: "Starry Night". Each meaningful work of Lara is so poignant, emotionally expressive portrayals that caresses our psyche, works of art we can love, live with and enjoy.

Lara’s lyrical master work collection of paintings on silk includes recreations of paintings by artist of great renown: Picasso, Monet, Cezanne, Johns, Georgia O'Keeffe and many more.