Background

Lilia Akhtyamovna Varetsa was born in Kharkov, Donetsk region, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (now Kharkov, Donetsk region, Ukraine). From an early age, Lilia was passionate about art and grew up surrounded with coloured pencils and crayons.

Education

Lilia Varetsa received her education at Kharkiv Art and Industry Institute (now Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts), graduating from it with a Master of Fine Arts degree in Painting in 1975. From 1974 to 1975, she also had her postgraduate study at the Russian Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg.

From 1992 to 1995, Varetsa has also made yearly trips to Italy to study Italian history and to absorb the Italian culture and art, especially the Baroque period, which greatly influenced her work.

Career

Since 1976, Lilia Varetsa has been working as an artist and interior designer. She has also been a participant in Ukranian and all-union group exhibitions as well as exhibitions abroad. In the middle of the 90s, she took up the illustration of children's literature while living in Belarus.

In 1996, Varetsa immigrated to Sydney, Australia, starting with her husband their own Varetsa Fine Art Studio, where she still works as an artist, educator, children's books illustrator, and photographer and regularly exhibits her works around Australia. Since 2006, Lilia and Valentin Varetsa have been living and working in Melbourne.

Achievements

• Lilia A. Varetsa is an Australian figurative artist whose works have been published as art prints, calendars, post stamps, children’s book illustrations, and greeting cards all over the world and could be found in museums of Kiev, Donetsk, Minsk, and in private collections in the USA, Ireland, in Lille (France), Amsterdam, Germany, Italy, and her own Varetsa Studio Gallery in Toorak, Melbourne.
  
  As well as being recognised internationally, Lilia has exhibited her artworks in numerous art shows and galleries throughout Victoria and New South Wales, including Sydney and Melbourne.
  
  As an illustrator, Lilia's works have appeared in numerous children's books published in Europe and Australia, including The Random House Children's Treasury, The Children's Treasury Gift Set and Favourite Bedtime Stories and The Hare And The Tortoise and other fables.
  
  Lilia Varetsa is also known as the author of her own books for children, I can draw! 11 Simple and Fun Drawing Lessons and The 40 Parables of Jesus.
  
  In July 2007, Varetsa was awarded the Winner of Frankston Arts Centre’s Developmental Prize. In March 2008, Lilia was a finalist in the National competition ‘She-Who Explores’ and exhibited in Walker Street Gallery, Dandenong, Australia.
  
  Lilia Varetsa is particularly known as the co-author, with her husband Valentin Varetsa, of Historical Figures of Belarus series.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The 40 Parables of Jesus

    (Book of "The 40 Parables of Jesus " will help children an...)

    2014
  • I can draw! 11 Simple and Fun Drawing Lessons

    (These step-by-step drawing lessons help your child develo...)

    2014

• painting

  • Sigismund Augustus and Barbara Radziwill
  • Astafjevs Volovich
  • Vseslav the Sorcerer
  • Ursula Radziwill
  • Symeon of Polotsk
  • Lev Sapieha
  • Adam Mickiewicz
  • Kazimir Semenovich
  • Tadeusz Kosciuszko
  • Duke Kęstutis
  • Nikolai Radziwill
  • Radziwill the Black
  • Napoleon Orda
  • Ilya Kopievich
  • Konstanty Kalinowski
  • Nikolai Gusovsky and Bona Sforza
  • Gediminas
  • Euphrosyne of Polotsk
  • Basil Tyapinsky
  • Pavlyuk Bagriy
  • Simon Budny
  • Stepan Batura
  • Francysk Skaryna
  • Constantine Ostrog
  • Duke Algirdas
  • Flight with Friends
  • The pink flowers
  • White Orchid
  • A pool party
  • Lady Daffodil
  • Lady Magnolia
  • Lady Lily
  • An Exciting Hunt

• photography

  • White Orchids
  • Tulips and Pearls
  • Still Life
  • Spring
  • Rain
  • Poppies Still Life
  • Plum Blossom
  • Pink Magnolias

Views

In her works, Lilia Varetsa is inspired by the classic Italian still life paintings, namely floral compositions, a ‘pronkstuk’ (or sumptuous still life). Her goal is to create artworks that are visually beautiful, calming and organic. Her current lively expressionistic style is full of whimsical characters with bright, bold colours in an expressive and unique perspective.

Quotations: "The true artist does not create what exists in nature, nature serves him only as a key to organ in his soul."

Membership

From 1976 to 1996, Varetsa was a member of the Artist Alliance of Ukraine. Currently, she is a member of the Ukrainian Artists Society of Australia.

Connections

Lilia Varetsa is married to an artist, Valentin Varetsa. The couple gave birth to one daughter, Veronika. The family lives in Melbourne, Australia.

husband:

Valentin Varetsa

Daughter:

Veronika Varetsa