Irina Tolmach

Irina Tolmach, an artist based in Newton. MA, grew up in Russia with an artist-grandmother, Edith Reytenburg, in a culture of respect and reverence to the arts. From childhood to adulthood, she visited museums around the world and developed a preference toward Impressionism and Abstract Art. Nine years ago, Irina began to practice painting, drawing inspiration from her favorite artists: Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, and Jackson Pollock. She applies her oil paint with a palette-knife layering technique. Irina’s paints and thus, gives time and attention to what she sees in the physical world, requiring the viewer to pause and reflect. Her canvases bear all subjects, from the largest seascapes or landscapes to the smallest flower or branch. All living things, no matter their magnitude, are beautiful, worthy, and part of life’s gallery. As the viewer is caused to equally consider subjects of varying status, as, like all viewers, their mind recounts personal impressions, encounters, and theories. Their thoughts move as one with the paint strokes until their understanding of the importance of visibility of all subjects, no matter size, transfers to their consideration of their thoughts and their lives