Inside the Studio

Larisa Ilieva

Favorite material to work with?
“Technique mixte”: acrylic, pen-china ink, collage, pastel on canvas, paper, board, stone, plastic… I love using all materials to make an art-play in the space.

What themes do you pursue?
Themes of the wind, the sea, the sun, the flowers, the birds, and everything more than that…

How many years as an artist?
Around 20.

Where is your studio?
Paris, France, in the 13th arrondissement and Bulgaria, in the village of Stokite.

What was the best advice given to you as an artist?
“Be yourself.”

Art school or self-taught?
University of Veliko Turnovo in Bulgaria.

Prefer to work with music or in silence?
Both. The music of the silence runs in my work…

What’s around the corner from your place?
In Paris, the river Seine. In Bulgaria, the Balkan mountains.

Where can we find you outside the studio?
Dans le Louvre.

If you couldn’t be an artist, what would you do?
Architect or fashion designer.

Day job?
No job other than art.

What do you collect?
Images on paper.

Favorite contemporary artist?
James Rosenquist, Albert Oehlen, Frida Kahlo….

If you could only have one piece of art in your life, what would it be?
Any work of Vermeer’s.

Who are your favorite writers?
F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pushkin, Chekov, Oscar Wilde…

Use anything other than paint?
Yes, anything but always together with paint.

Is painting dead?
No, and it never will be.

Favorite brush?
Soft, clean and new.

Palette knives?
At times.

Monet or Manet?
Yesterday Monet, today Manet…