Natallia Valiukevich Biography

I would like to express my gratitude to my friend Charles Mandel, who encouraged me to watercolor painting, and my Mom, who makes my work possible.

I did not choose watercolor painting. But watercolor painting chose me.

I am a Belarusian artist. I studied at the Belarusian State Pedagogical University to become an artist-teacher. After graduating from university, I worked in a printing house as a designer for several years. I was successful at my workplace, but the office atmosphere did not match my freedom-loving nature. I quit my job and became a freelancer.

I studied three-dimensional programs on my own and worked in the computer games industry for 15 years. I created lots of three-dimensional houses, monsters, ruins, and crumpled tanks. My child grew up. I saw that he plays a lot of computer games. My work began to burden me. I was not sure if I was doing something good for the children.

I left my work. It was a shock for my family. I started retouching and colorizing old photos remotely.

I met an excellent customer from the USA. For several years we restored old photos of American baseball players. 

We did a great job. Next  my customer began to encourage me to paint watercolors of American baseball players.

Watercolor portrait! Its impossible. Watercolor is not suitable for portraits. I was sure that it was impossible.

But I did not want to lose the job. I had to agree. I had some of the most difficult months in my life. I forced myself to learn painting with watercolor. I did not expect that I would succeed, but still I hoped that I could manage.

A few months later I had a product for my client. We made 96 excellent watercolor portraits. Almost all of them were purchased by collectors. I look forward to a series of baseball cards made from those watercolors.

I received touching letters from the relatives of the baseball players. I think that we did an excellent job.

Academic art 19th century had a great influence on me. Peter Sokolov and Karl Bryullov. And also emotional realism – Steve Hank.

I have now a unique technique for multi-layer watercolor. I do not mix colors on the palette. But I make thin layers of pure colors on my work. I get an amazing result, which is only available in watercolor painting.

20-year experience as a graphic designer has become for me a huge support in watercolor painting. I photograph and process the photos myself. I control this process and I know how to do well for watercolors.

I had a very sharp transition to traditional artists. Painting is an element that has a very powerful effect on a person. It took me away and I had to use all my willpower to control it. I do not need additional incentives for inspiration. Yet I have to make an effort to focus on everyday things. I immerse myself in the process of painting. I love the characters I draw. I feel their joys and sorrows. It is amazing. But sometimes it scares me.

I started painting with watercolor in June 2017.

A year later I started painting for my portfolio. I showed my works in international groups. I was totally insecure as I saw a hundred shortcomings in my works. But, wow, what a great feedback did I get! I had hundreds of likes and hundreds of enthusiastic comments. This is incredibly inspiring. Now I can say for sure that watercolor painting is my favorite work.

I am working now on paintings for international exhibitions. And yes, I have a lot of new ideas.