Old Town Monastery

"I'm Alina Racienė, using a pseudonym Azura Oil. I was born and grew up in a small town in Lithuania, surrounded by love, nostalgic and peaceful nature. My painting history goes back to my early childhood, when I used to sit for hours with a brush in my hand. Growing up, I dreamed of becoming a ballerina and a painter. In my younger years, I took up dancing professionally, but quickly started a family and raised six children.

For me, art is everything I do with love every day. It is what is given by the Creator, what is given as grace. What is around me and within me is life and all that it contains.

I admire the work of the masters of art, sometimes I just want to repeat what they have already created. I have painted several works inspired by them, written poetry.
I see myself as part of a river that flows from a living and creating source, connecting eternity and the present," says the author.

Alina mostly paints mysterious landscapes that emerge from a light, dreamlike haze. Often they are flooded with the magical light of the moonlight or the last rays of the sun, where they seem more like visions of the afterlife. The occasional figures that appear usually do not take clear shapes, do not show their faces, they are self-absorbed, their minds preoccupied with unearthly concerns. Colours are muted, contours are blurred, everything is imbued with an indescribable longing and a gentle melancholy, a pensive mood. These paintings are particularly suited to spaces where you want to calm your mind and relax.