Irina Khudyakov captures a lifetime of travels through oil paintings
Artist Irina Khudyakov’s art is on display at Morganton City Hall through September. Her paintings capture natural scenery from her travels across the world.
Growing up in the Soviet Union, Irina Khudyakov’s passion for art began as a child exploring museums and exhibitions in Moscow with her parents and friends. Even then, she had an eye for impressionism, which blends natural light and everyday scenes from the surrounding world.
Though Khudyakov found ways to express herself through the occasional drawing or watercolor painting, she said the general public did not have access to art supplies like canvases, oil and acrylic paints, and more unless they were in the art society.
Up until they moved to the United States, Khudyakov and her family were living in the Soviet Union during the final years of the country’s existence, a period marked by inflation and severe shortages of basic goods.
“It was very, very difficult because the industry collapsed,” Khudyakov said. “We lived with my daughter until she finished school, and she was in third grade. It’s terrible because I picked her up from school, I come to the store and it’s empty, nothingness.”
The year of the fall, Khudyakov and her husband moved with their daughter to New York City, a change that brought immediate comfort.
“I feel like I lived there all my life,” Khudyakov said.
The new start gave her the opportunity to pursue artistic talents further. With a master’s degree in engineering, understanding three-dimensional forms proved to be a skill that helped her excel in sketching and painting.
From New York, Khudyakov’s family moved to a few different states, including Maryland, where she took classes at the Mitchell School of Fine Arts in Baltimore and studied the technique of old Dutch masters. She also lived in Connecticut, where she was an elementary school teacher.
Prior to moving to North Carolina, Khudyakov’s family lived in Virginia, where she attended classes in studio art and participated in the annual Expressions exhibition at the Piedmont Arts Museum in Martinsville, where she received purchase awards every year.
After moving to the Hickory area in the late 1990s, Khudyakov began working more with oil paints through classes at Catawba Valley Community College. Since then, she has fallen in love with the medium and often takes inspiration from the world around her.
“I want to show people how our world is beautiful,” Khudyakov said.
Several of her paintings include popular scenes from Western North Carolina, including the Linn Cove Viaduct, a bridge that hugs the face of Grandfather Mountain and is recognized internationally as an engineering marvel. Many of her paintings also feature scenes from travels with her husband.
France, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, and more Western European countries often appear in her work. She creates original paintings from her own experiences by referring to her sketches, photographs, and observations.
Her favorite painting is of a morning scene at Geneva Lake, one of the largest lakes in Western Europe, because it captures the sun coming up and the reflection of orange and pink clouds over the water. Another painting she has been proud of is one of a street scene in Germany, which was included in an exhibition at the Old Rock School in Valdese, where a woman recognized the location and purchased the piece.
Khudyakov’s artwork is currently on display as the City of Morganton’s August and September Art in the Hall exhibition. Her artwork is also in private collections in Russia, Germany, Macedonia, and all across the United States.
She is also a member of Foothills Painters, which is a group of artists from Catawba, Caldwell, and Lincoln counties. The organization was established in 2002 and focuses on enhancing the work of each member through active and open critiques.
