Iryna Grytsenko

Iryna Grytsenko | Sadness | 2025

Your background is in architecture. How does architectural thinking influence the way you construct emotional narratives in your watercolor works?

My architectural education taught me to think in terms of structure and storytelling. In architecture, a building is always created as a narrative: from the foundation to the roof, from an idea to a form, from the inner meaning to the outer shape.

In my works, I do the same, but instead of constructing buildings, I construct emotional spaces.

Each painting is not just an image, but a scene with its own logic, tension, and silence. And a series is like an architectural project for me: individual works are like rooms, and together they form a unified emotional space.

Architectural thinking helps me keep a balance between intuition and structure, between feeling and composition. Even the most fragile emotions need a “framework” to be heard.

Iryna Grytsenko | Hope | 2025

In the series “States”, animals appear in interiors that are foreign to them. What was the first emotional impulse that led you to this visual decision?

This decision was born from my own inner feeling. Even though I have been living in Morocco for sixteen years, I still often feel not entirely in my place, not fully in my natural environment.

These animals are metaphors for my inner states. They reflect what I experience while living in another culture and another space: anxiety, vulnerability, sadness, isolation, doubt.

But despite all of this, there is always hope present in these works.

Iryna Grytsenko | Doubt | 2025

Watercolor is often associated with fragility and unpredictability. How does this medium help you speak about vulnerability and inner tension?

Watercolor itself is a fragile and unpredictable medium, and working in the wet-on-wet technique makes this even stronger. Control becomes almost an illusion.

If you wait a little too long, the paint stops flowing.

If you rush, everything spreads uncontrollably.

This constant tension between patience and risk feels very close to human emotional experience. There is adrenaline, vulnerability, and acceptance that not everything depends on you. This is how the theme of fragility and inner tension naturally appears in my work.

Many of your interiors feel quiet, almost suspended in time. What role does silence play in your artistic language?

Perhaps I do not consciously try to paint silence, but it appears in my works again and again. I think it has become part of my artistic signature.

Silence gives space to hear oneself, to slow down and enter a deeper inner dialogue. In my artistic language, silence is a place where emotions do not shout but exist quietly and deeply.

Iryna Grytsenko | Excitement | 2025

Living and working in Fez, particularly near the medina, how does this environment shape your sense of space, rhythm, and symbolism?

I have created many works inspired by the medina of Fez. For me, it is an almost magical place, especially its non-touristic areas: quiet streets, unrestored facades, and a strong sense of time.

The medina is about twelve centuries old, and you can truly feel the power of history there. This environment has shaped the intimacy of my works, their sense of enclosure, inner concentration, and symbolism.

Iryna Grytsenko | Vulnerability | 2025

Animals in your works seem calm, alert, or introspective rather than dramatic. How do you choose which animal corresponds to each emotional state?

This is my favorite question. I choose each animal with great care and sensitivity.

I always look at its character, behavior, and energy.

For example, a fawn symbolizes fragility, vulnerability, and constant alertness.

A cow, for me, carries a deep, almost human sadness. Her large eyes look straight into the heart.

And the horse is especially personal. When I was a child, I had a dream where a horse stood in a hallway between the street and the house, unable to decide where to go. This image stayed with me forever, and in the series States it became a perfect symbol of doubt and inner choice.

Iryna Grytsenko | Withdrawal | 2025

What do you hope remains with the viewer after spending time with these works: a specific emotion, a memory, or simply a pause?

I would like each viewer to find something personal in my works.

Someone may recall their own memories, someone may smile, and someone may feel a slight discomfort or tension.

For example, someone might look at the cow and jokingly say they expected to see someone else in the reflection, but it is still the cow.

Another person might see a large animal confined in a very small space and feel an inner unease.

Any reaction is valuable to me. If a work creates a feeling, it means it is alive.