Lyudmila Agrich Debuts New Works Revolving Around the Theme Winter Into Spring March 29 2026, 0 Comments

By Kimberly Nicoletti

Spring came to the mountains early this year, and Lyudmila Agrich’s new paintings revolving around the theme “Winter into Spring” brings the transformation to life in a most colorful and textural way.

She views winter as mostly black and white, even though, of course, her paintings of ski villages in Vail and Breckenridge portray blue skies and brown-toned buildings. Still, the colors are more subdued.

“I paint winter in cities, parks or villages with the lights and all those reflections; they are very mesmerizing to me,” Lyudmila Agrich said, adding, “I always try to paint something with water; even snow is water. It has this ability to catch light.”

Paintings like “Winter Charm” showcase the glow of street lights, warm lights emanating from windows of buildings, and a bit of pink reflecting off a car.

She always adds people to her village paintings, whether it’s a daytime scene like “Winter in Vail” or a night scene, like “Night Stroll through Breckenridge” or “Evening Breckenridge,” which depicts an energetic, yet relaxed state.

“I wouldn’t say there’s a lot of colors (in these). It’s a sense you had an active day on the slopes, and now you can relax and rest,” she said. “When I ski, it’s more adventurous; I like to push myself. It’s work, but after that work … I like to have a cup of tea with a sandwich; it’s like a reward. Everything is done, you know you did a great job, and right now you can relax and enjoy.”

While Lyudmila Agrich has a very recognizable style, as she creates her paintings with palette knives, she focuses less on style, or technique, and more on creating a living entity.

“Whatever I do with my technique is secondary. The most important thing to me is to try to catch atmosphere, light and colors — mostly my paintings are supposed to be like a living thing,” she said.” What I try to do — it’s mostly subconsciously — when I paint is, I want to bring all this emotion of when I experienced things. Whatever I enjoy, I want to put it in my paintings. My paintings are not just pretty pictures but should be life; they should touch a viewer. It’s a tool for me to connect with the viewer.”

In fact, she tried her hand at abstracts but found she just couldn’t transfer emotion onto the canvas that way.

Her spring paintings convey nature awakening, with its array of brilliant colors.

“It’s the beginning of new life,” she said. “With winter, it’s one energy; with spring, it’s completely different, (but) it’s nice to have that balance. Winter, for me, is a stillness of nature. The thing that brings it to life is people.”

Although the theme of her new works is “Winter into Spring,” she often branches out — she says her personality doesn’t allow her to stay with just one topic.

“Sometimes, I wake up and feel I just want to paint something else,” she said. “Even if I have some sort of topic for a certain show, like rain showers or city reflections, I always end up with an eclectic (collection). It’s more my nature, I guess.”

Hence her European cityscapes, “Broadway at Night” and other New York City paintings, as well as sunset paintings of boats floating placidly in the water.

“Orange Sunset,” featuring boats, shimmers with rich oranges and yellows, reminding viewers of vacations or simply gazing across a body of water at the end of the day.

“Sunrise and sunset are the most mesmerizing parts of the day. With the sunrise, you can see different colors, like a newborn baby: baby blues, pink, etc. Sunset is more about balance, peacefulness, calmness, even wisdom because it’s the end of the day, and it brings to my soul a peace of mind.”

"Orange Sunset" Oil on Canvas by Lyudmila Agrich

As a former architect, she has a unique perspective and understanding of cities and has an uncanny way of rendering that into her paintings. She views European cities such as Paris, with its variety of museums, as a living experience that you become immersed in, much like her paintings. The range of energy in big cities like New York also inspires her.

“I like variety because for me all these paintings are manifestations of human life,” she said. “It’s a reflection of a certain type of people, and I love diversity.”

She views completing and letting go of her paintings just as a mother raises children, supporting them to a certain point and then releasing them.

Having grown up in Ukraine, she moved to Colorado, and her life as a professional artist took off after watching a man in a gallery on Broadway use a palette knife in 2002. When she showed him her brush paintings, he suggested she try a body of work using a palette knife. She discovered it allowed her to generate bolder and brighter paintings, which essentially, she ends up sculpting.

“I appreciate it because humans’ tendency is to have control over whatever they do. And it’s very hard to control a palette knife. You have to just leave it and let it go — whatever you did — and don’t overanalyze,” she said.

The palette knife helps curb her urge to overwork paintings. “I just deliberately try to not think and be loose,” she said.

That, combined with employing oil paints, which add a vivid quality, defines her paintings, be it blooming flowers, winter villages, city reflections or even koi swirling in a pond or ballet dancers on pointe.