Karina Savina
- Jan 26
- 5 min read
Updated: Jan 27
Karina Savina, also known as Dilan, is a painter and mixed media artist from Moscow, now based in Belgrade. She trained in architecture and classical drawing, and she still thinks in terms of balance, structure, and how a surface holds together. Her paintings usually begin from a clear inner state, and she builds them slowly with watercolor, acrylic, ink, and digital layers. Nature comes into the work as a general atmosphere and mood, and it shows up in the way colors and shapes relate to each other on the surface.
Q: You trained in architecture. What from that way of thinking still shows up in how you work?
A: My classical training in painting and architecture has actually given me far more than I realized—although for many years I denied it, feeling as if at every stage of my artistic path I was starting from scratch and experimenting with something entirely new :)
During all six years of study, we drew everything by hand: graphic studies, copies of classical works, and all architectural projects were executed in watercolor using a wash technique—where you spend hours or even days applying thin layers to create an even, luminous surface.
Now I clearly see how those skills shape my work. They help me create paintings that feel harmonious in terms of composition and spatial balance. This sensitivity has become a kind of internal calibration :)
I rely on my understanding of light and shadow, on the structure of composition, when I paint. For me, abstraction is ordered chaos—a harmony of many elements. Something spontaneous that emerges through a very precise inner vision. On one hand, it flows naturally from within; on the other, every painting becomes a complete, balanced space, where even the smallest brushstroke or dot has its place.
Q: How does a new work usually begin for you?
A: I feel that every artwork begins long before it appears in material form. I can’t create a painting out of “nothing” or just because I want to see a certain visual result. Each piece becomes a kind of quintessence—a living portal where lived, felt experience transforms into form.
But it’s not simply personal experience. It becomes something distilled: moving from an individual reflection (mine) into a state that belongs to many. Neutral, unconditional, no longer tied to pain.For example, anyone can pour their emotions and imagery onto a canvas.
But the question is: what happens after that? For me, it’s not enough to express; what matters is transmitting the purity of the feeling and the path. States that have an entrance and an exit—states anyone can feel without resistance.
It’s about respect for the viewer and an invitation to co-creation. I never ask people to interpret my work through the prism of my personal story. Instead, I invite them to find their own. Only then does art truly create and bring something new into the world—it nourishes!
Even freedom, or gentle melancholy, or will, or the sensation of rebirth—each of these states contains countless nuances and shades that each person can discover for themselves.
Q: Nature comes back often in your images. Do you work more from what you see or from memory?
A: For me, nature is a unified, living, feeling space—the essence of things. When I work, I don’t refer to specific places or concrete visual memories. It’s more about sensing the deep connection between humans and nature. I often perceive this inseparable field of which we are a part, though we tend to forget it. Everything around us breathes, pulses, changes—and expresses itself through color and movement, becoming states of being.
I often feel a clear parallel between my inner states and the states of the environment, the moods expressed in nature. Where feelings are formed, the image of the living world naturally emerges.
And I want to share this sense of unity with others—to show its natural beauty.
Q: Your recent works move into immersive spaces. What changes for you when the work becomes spatial?
A: This transition feels completely natural, because for me each painting or drawing is already a space—sometimes even an entire world.
I see them in motion and at scale. The question is: how do I let others experience that?
My goal for the near future is to realize an immersive exhibition where the viewer becomes an active participant—able to step inside these worlds while also exploring their own inner landscape: safely, constructively, and with inspiration.
I hope to create a space that combines visuals with sound, tactile elements, and maybe even scents. I feel this moment is approaching :)
Q: You work with watercolor, acrylic, mixed media, and digital tools. What role do these different mediums play in your process?
A: At this stage, I couldn’t give up any of them. I love mixing mediums, and each technique helps express a particular idea or emotional state in its own best way.
I value digital tools for their clarity, precision, and the ability to build images in multiple layers. I love watercolor for its lightness and unpredictability—the same qualities I cherish in acrylic, which I often dilute with water. Through this, I feel a sense of co-creation with water itself, leaving space for spontaneity and allowing things simply to be :)
Maybe later one direction will reveal itself as the clearest, the truest, the loudest—but for now, each medium has its essential place in my practice.
Q: What interests you most right now in the human–nature relationship?
A: As I wrote earlier, unity is at the core of my interest. There is a lot of conversation today about protecting nature, caring for the environment. But this is equally about our relationship with animals, and with each other—how one human treats another.
We are slowly moving toward awareness. And of course, these themes can be shown through destruction and darkness. But I choose to show a level where humans and the world are already whole and unified.
It’s easy to endlessly reflect on scarcity: a lack of mindfulness, ecology, humanity, tolerance, compassion for Earth and for one another. Perhaps my ideas sound utopian, but I feel it’s essential for us to awaken a felt understanding of this connection from within.
Until we experience this—until we feel that everything around us is us, and that we ourselves are the world—lasting change is unlikely.
But when we truly sense the living essence in both nature and ourselves, while recognizing our different interests and experiences, harmony becomes possible.
Review by Curatory:
Karina Savina’s paintings create a controlled yet strong visual field, where architectural order and artistic intuition coexist with purpose. Her background in architecture and classical drawing shows in the careful composition and balanced weight across the surface. However, the layered application of watercolor, acrylic, ink, and digital techniques keeps the images from becoming rigid. Color serves more as a medium for atmosphere than as a simple description. It creates spatial effects that do not strictly fit into landscape or abstract categories, resembling an internal landscape instead. The works avoid clear narratives and symbols, maintaining a steady balance. This results in a visual field that feels welcoming, absorbent, and subtly vibrant.
