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Anastasiia Yatsunenko
USA
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“Strength does not always announce itself through movement. Sometimes the most powerful animal is the one resting quietly in the sun.”
Anastasiia Yatsunenko is a Ukrainian artist, and art has been part of her life for as long as she can remember. It stayed with her from childhood into adulthood, when she built a professional career in graphic design and illustration. For many years her days were spent shaping images on a screen and learning how a picture holds a viewer's attention. That training still shows. Her paintings are carefully composed and clearly structured, and they carry the assurance of someone who has thought long and hard about how an image speaks to the person standing in front of it.
Flamingo | Acrylic
$1,200
30" x 15"
Flamingo explores the expressive power of elegance and nature's unique character. Against a dark, richly layered background, the bird's luminous pink plumage becomes the focus, revealing grace through a striking contrast of light and shadow. Surrounding flowers echo its delicate curves and vibrant presence. I wanted to celebrate the flamingo's distinctive beauty beyond decoration, balancing ornamental richness with a quiet sense of individuality and poise.
In 2022, the full-scale war in Ukraine forced Anastasiia to leave her home country and relocate to the United States. Few experiences reshape a life so completely. The move led her to reconsider many of her priorities and to ask what art truly meant to her, a question that is easy to postpone in ordinary times and impossible to ignore in extraordinary ones. Her answer did not arrive all at once. It took shape gradually, alongside the slow work of building a life in another country, and it would go on to change the direction of her art entirely.
Parrot | Acrylic
$1,200
30" x 15"
Parrot explores color as an expressive language in its own right. The bird's luminous plumage emerges from deep blue foliage and warm blossoms, creating a lively dialogue between brilliant contrasts and softer transitions. I wanted the composition to feel rich and energetic without losing its sense of balance; the parrot's calm presence holds the colors together. The painting celebrates nature's fearless palette and the harmony within an abundance of color and form.
“Behind my cat's almost aristocratic gaze lie a mischievous streak and a generous amount of disapproval.”
It was in America that she began giving far more of her time to traditional painting. Step by step, she moved from digital imagery to paint and canvas, trading the undo button for the commitment of a brushstroke. Paint asked more of her than a screen ever had, and she found that she wanted to give it. Eventually, art became her primary professional focus. The decision was deliberate. She already knew she could work successfully with images; now she wanted them to carry something more personal. That sense of purpose lends her paintings a quiet conviction, the conviction of someone who is sure of why she paints.
Chickens. Family Portrait | Oil
$1,200
20" x 16"
Chickens, Family Portrait approaches an ordinary subject with the dignity of a formal portrait and a gentle sense of humor. The proud rooster and composed hen appear as distinct personalities, united by an understated bond. Rich flowers and dramatic contrasts lend the scene an unexpectedly ceremonial air. I wanted to celebrate the charm and individuality of familiar animals, inviting viewers to reconsider what deserves admiration, affection, and a place of honor in art.
Anastasiia now lives and works in Florida, and the natural world around her has become one of her richest sources of inspiration. Local plants and animals appear more and more often in her work. She is the kind of observer who notices what others walk past: a slight shift of color along a feather or a leaf, an unusual shape, the particular texture of a surface. These details are rarely dramatic, yet they are often where a new painting begins. In a state so rich in wildlife, that habit of close looking is always at work.
Flamingo on Red celebrates the extraordinary elegance of a bird whose anatomy seems almost sculptural. The sweeping curve of its neck, intricate layers of feathers, and precise balance give its form a rhythm unlike any other. Against the intense red background, its pale plumage becomes luminous and delicate. I wanted the contrast to heighten both its individuality and its quiet strength, revealing nature's ability to create forms that feel at once improbable and completely harmonious.
Flamingo on Red | Acrylic
$700
20" x 16"
“In The Flock, I wanted to capture the fragile trust that makes connection possible, and the quiet strength we can find in tenderness, acceptance and the presence of others.”
“When I'm painting, I can spend hours on a single composition, searching for the right shade and watching the image change with every new layer. Everything else fades into the background. Painting helps me quiet the worries of daily life and find a sense of inner calm, but just as important is the joy of bringing something into the world that did not exist before. That endless chance to explore, discover and create is what keeps drawing me back to the canvas, again and again.”
Flock | Oil
$2,500
34" x 26"
The Flock explores the longing to belong and the comfort of being surrounded by other living beings. A solitary human figure becomes part of a gathering of birds, where differences give way to an instinctive sense of closeness. The interwoven forms and expressive colors suggest a world poised between reality and imagination. I wanted to capture the fragile trust that makes connection possible, and the quiet strength we can find in tenderness, acceptance, and the presence of others.
Animals sit at the heart of this exhibition, and Anastasiia approaches them as individuals. Appearance alone does not hold her interest. What draws her is an animal's character and living presence, the qualities that make one creature unmistakably itself. Small things, such as a slight turn of the head, the set of a body or the tension held in a pause before movement, can decide the emotional weather of an entire painting. She studies them closely and keeps faith with each animal's true nature, then adds the interpretation that makes the image hers. As a result, her animals rarely feel like specimens. Each seems to have a temperament of its own.
Crocodile | Acrylic
$400
11" x 14"
Crocodile brings together unexpected qualities: danger, tenderness, humor, and play. I imagined a young crocodile whose sharp teeth and formidable appearance are softened by the butterflies fluttering around it. Rather than portraying a predator as purely threatening, I wanted to reveal its charm, curiosity, and youthful mischief. The contrast creates a whimsical encounter where opposing forces coexist, inviting us to question our first impressions of wild creatures.
Realism anchors her paintings, yet a faithful copy of the world has never been her aim. Anastasiia is fascinated by what happens when reality passes through a painter's hands and comes out transformed. Light is one of her most important tools. It can reveal a form that was nearly invisible, alter the mood of a scene or turn an ordinary subject into the center of attention. Shadow has a job too, building volume and depth while hiding just enough to leave the viewer something to imagine. Color, texture and even the direction of each brushstroke matter to her as much as the subject itself.
Ducks reflects the quiet intimacy of companionship and the pleasure of a shared peaceful moment. On a sunlit day, two birds glide through brilliant blue water, leaving ripples that curve and intertwine around them. I wanted the shifting reflections and flowing brushstrokes to convey movement without disturbing the scene's calm. The painting celebrates an unhurried rhythm of life, inviting the viewer to feel the warmth of sunlight, lightness, and the ease of being close to nature.
Ducks | Oil
$1,200
24" x 18"
Traditional materials hold a special place in her practice, and each one earns it for reasons of its own. Oil gives her rich, gradual transitions of color and the chance to return to a passage and refine it later. Acrylic brings another kind of freedom, well suited to strong contrasts and a wide range of textures. She values the physical side of painting, the feel of a brush traveling across canvas, and she welcomes the moments when a picture surprises her. Not every decision can be planned in advance, and that small margin of uncertainty is one of the parts of the work she enjoys most.
“A snake is so often misunderstood. I want people to look past the danger and see its elegance and vulnerability.”
Anastasiia refuses to confine herself to one style, genre or medium. Beyond painting, she experiments with epoxy resin, textured materials and mixed media, exploring what happens where different surfaces meet. Transparency set against density, and color set against physical depth, hold a strong appeal for her. Working in multiple layers lets her study how a piece responds to changing light and to the angle from which it is viewed, and combining materials opens new ways to express movement and space. A surface, for her, is more than a support for an image; it can become an active element of the picture. The most promising experiments become the starting point for whatever she tries next.
Jaguar | Acrylic
$1,200
18" x 24"
Strength does not always announce itself through movement. In Jaguar, a powerful predator appears in a moment of unexpected calm, revealing a quieter side of wild nature. Warm sunlight falls across the pond and catches the animal's features, drawing attention to its still, commanding presence. I kept the surrounding atmosphere golden and luminous, allowing the play of light to guide the viewer's eye. Here, power and tranquility exist without contradiction, in perfect balance.
The finished piece is only part of what painting gives her. Every work is also a lesson, and she treats her practice as an ongoing education. Fresh ideas, untried materials and stubborn artistic problems all keep her engaged. Even mistakes have their place, since a misstep can open a door she would never have found on purpose. She has no interest in a single perfect method of representation. Variety keeps her alert, and it is this genuine curiosity that ties her works together, even when their materials and subjects could hardly be more different.
Mr. Cat is a portrait of my own cat, whose personality I wanted to capture beyond physical resemblance. Behind his almost aristocratic gaze lie a mischievous streak, unmistakable individuality, and a generous amount of disapproval. His serious expression adds a gentle sense of humor to the portrait. Through the smallest nuances of his face, I wanted to reveal the dignity, stubbornness, and emotional complexity that make animals such compelling, unforgettable companions.
Mr. Cat | Acrylic
$300
12" x 9"
In Anastasiia's view, art can change the way people see the world, and it needs neither a grand subject nor a hidden meaning to do so. An unexpected pairing of colors or a mood created by light and composition can be enough. The art she cares about stirs real feeling, wakes curiosity and invites people to pause, if only for a moment, in the middle of a demanding day. That is what she hopes her animal paintings will offer the people who spend time with them: a share of her attentiveness to nature and her delight in the sheer variety of living things.
Golden Python | Acrylic
$600
16" x 12"
Golden Python explores the uneasy boundary between fascination and fear. The serpent's powerful, flowing form is surrounded by delicate white orchids, bringing two seemingly opposing expressions of nature into harmony. Against a dark background, warm gold suggests both mystery and quiet magnificence. I wanted to challenge the instinct to see danger alone, inviting viewers to recognize elegance, vulnerability, and the extraordinary beauty of a creature so often misunderstood.
“Even the most familiar animals deserve admiration, affection and a place of honor in art.”
Anastasiia Yatsunenko
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