One to Watch<\/a><\/h3>\n\nMay 13, 2025<\/strong>Posted by Audrey Wolfe<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p>\n
Curling, dripping, growing, breathing, living. Kent-based artist Lilia Orlova-Holmes\u2019s sensorial works transpose the essence of Earth\u2019s most verdant spaces onto canvas. An interlocutor for the natural world, Lilia goes a step beyond seeing to grasp the experience of being completely and totally one with nature.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nLilia\u2019s career as an exhibiting artist spans more than three decades. Owing to her immense talent and experience, Lilia was handpicked by Saatchi Art\u2019s curators to show at the Other Art Fair London and to feature in the Saatchi Art Catalog. Engross yourself in the all-encompassing calm created by May\u2019s One to Watch.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nTell us about who you are and what you do. What\u2019s your background?<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nMy name is Lilia Orlova-Holmes. I am a painter based in Kent, and I have been an artist for about 35 years now. My friends from The Riverside Studios organized my first exhibition in London in a small gallery on King\u2019s Road in 1993. After a period of working and exhibiting in London, I made a big shift, moving to Kent in 2012. I needed isolation. I came to a place where I knew no one, and no one knew me. Other than looking after my small family, I spent all my time in the studio, painting six to seven hours a day. Apart from my son and painting, I love long walks and caring for my garden.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
What does your work aim to say? What are the major themes you pursue in your work?<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nPainting is an immersive experience for me, everything goes into it. After moving to Kent, I achieved a greater sense of concentration, and I was able to deepen my connection with nature. I do not try to depict nature; rather, I study nature so I can do what nature does. I want to directly experience the energy of growth, movement, and transformation. There\u2019s a dormant seed in everything, including on a blank canvas. I want to create from that seed, starting from any point, finding an initial creative impulse, and transforming it so it comes to completion. I don\u2019t judge my work, and I don\u2019t look for perfection. There\u2019s nothing perfect, just endless variety. Constant movement and transformation are perfect enough.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
How do you hope viewers respond to your works? What do you want them to feel?<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n\nA completed painting is a living, breathing organism. Everything joins together to create it. I suppose I want my viewer to experience that universal connection.<\/p>\n
How does your work comment on current social and political issues?<\/span><\/h2>\nI don\u2019t remark on social and political matters in my work. I feel the need to remove myself from constant overstimulation, anything that distorts my understanding of the universal truth. My mind is more receptive when I remain quiet and contemplative.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
If you couldn\u2019t be an artist, what would you do?<\/b><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\nIf I weren\u2019t an artist, I would have loved to be an alchemist, looking for the elixir of life. Alchemists wanted to complete the world. They believed that with our divine spark, we could participate in the great act of creation. Alchemists also played a large role in the development of the pigments we use today in painting. Mixing together pigments to find something true to the sky, true to the force of a flower\u2014that is the essence of the alchemical quest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
What are some of your favorite experiences as an artist?<\/h2>\n\n\n\nYou have to \u2018love the process\u2019 in painting, but it\u2019s more than that. You have to commit yourself, free from distraction, to a total commitment to every moment of painting.<\/p>\n
What was the best advice given to you as an artist?<\/h2>\n
I like one quote from Marc Chagall: \u201cThe world is good if you love it. I love love. Love helps me find colors. I can even say that it is love itself that finds color and that I only report that discovery on canvas. It is stronger than me. That is how I see life. It is beautiful, terrible. Strange also, probably because I look at it with the eyes of love\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\n\nAbout One to Watch<\/h3>\n
Each month, we showcase an emerging artist from around the world who is already garnering attention for their work. \u201cOne To Watch\u201d presents some of the most exciting artists on Saatchi Art helping collectors to discover strong emerging talent.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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May 13, 2025<\/strong>Posted by Audrey Wolfe<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Curling, dripping, growing, breathing, living. Kent-based artist Lilia Orlova-Holmes\u2019s sensorial works transpose the essence of Earth\u2019s most verdant spaces onto canvas. An interlocutor for the natural world, Lilia goes a step beyond seeing to grasp the experience of being completely and totally one with nature.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Lilia\u2019s career as an exhibiting artist spans more than three decades. Owing to her immense talent and experience, Lilia was handpicked by Saatchi Art\u2019s curators to show at the Other Art Fair London and to feature in the Saatchi Art Catalog. Engross yourself in the all-encompassing calm created by May\u2019s One to Watch.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n My name is Lilia Orlova-Holmes. I am a painter based in Kent, and I have been an artist for about 35 years now. My friends from The Riverside Studios organized my first exhibition in London in a small gallery on King\u2019s Road in 1993. After a period of working and exhibiting in London, I made a big shift, moving to Kent in 2012. I needed isolation. I came to a place where I knew no one, and no one knew me. Other than looking after my small family, I spent all my time in the studio, painting six to seven hours a day. Apart from my son and painting, I love long walks and caring for my garden.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Painting is an immersive experience for me, everything goes into it. After moving to Kent, I achieved a greater sense of concentration, and I was able to deepen my connection with nature. I do not try to depict nature; rather, I study nature so I can do what nature does. I want to directly experience the energy of growth, movement, and transformation. There\u2019s a dormant seed in everything, including on a blank canvas. I want to create from that seed, starting from any point, finding an initial creative impulse, and transforming it so it comes to completion. I don\u2019t judge my work, and I don\u2019t look for perfection. There\u2019s nothing perfect, just endless variety. Constant movement and transformation are perfect enough.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n A completed painting is a living, breathing organism. Everything joins together to create it. I suppose I want my viewer to experience that universal connection.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t remark on social and political matters in my work. I feel the need to remove myself from constant overstimulation, anything that distorts my understanding of the universal truth. My mind is more receptive when I remain quiet and contemplative.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n If I weren\u2019t an artist, I would have loved to be an alchemist, looking for the elixir of life. Alchemists wanted to complete the world. They believed that with our divine spark, we could participate in the great act of creation. Alchemists also played a large role in the development of the pigments we use today in painting. Mixing together pigments to find something true to the sky, true to the force of a flower\u2014that is the essence of the alchemical quest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n You have to \u2018love the process\u2019 in painting, but it\u2019s more than that. You have to commit yourself, free from distraction, to a total commitment to every moment of painting.<\/p>\n I like one quote from Marc Chagall: \u201cThe world is good if you love it. I love love. Love helps me find colors. I can even say that it is love itself that finds color and that I only report that discovery on canvas. It is stronger than me. That is how I see life. It is beautiful, terrible. Strange also, probably because I look at it with the eyes of love\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Each month, we showcase an emerging artist from around the world who is already garnering attention for their work. \u201cOne To Watch\u201d presents some of the most exciting artists on Saatchi Art helping collectors to discover strong emerging talent.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n \n <\/div>\nTell us about who you are and what you do. What\u2019s your background?<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n
What does your work aim to say? What are the major themes you pursue in your work?<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n
How do you hope viewers respond to your works? What do you want them to feel?<\/span><\/h2>\n
How does your work comment on current social and political issues?<\/span><\/h2>\n
If you couldn\u2019t be an artist, what would you do?<\/b><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
What are some of your favorite experiences as an artist?<\/h2>\n
What was the best advice given to you as an artist?<\/h2>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/article>\nAbout One to Watch<\/h3>\n