A Studio Visit With Yana Korneva

Before settling down in the Pacific Northwest in 2021, Yana Korneva was born and raised in Minsk, Belarus. As an early riser and plein air artist she consistently finds peaceful, solitary time to search for new landscapes, capturing the quiet with pastels and oil paint. The ease, energy and grace in which she works is hard to fathom—seamlessly swapping soft pastels, the scenes form with both realism and a dreamlike wonder.

Yana and her studiomate share a light-filled space in Seattle's oldest neighborhood, Pioneer Square. On a Monday evening looking down on 1st Ave, we can see shops closing up for the day between the steady hum of cars, pedestrians and seagulls going about their business.

Whether seated at the studio or in a field, Yana's work captures the combination of her life in both Belarus and the Pacific Northwest, creating pieces from a collection of memories or from the scene in front of her.