Collection: Maria Iva

Maria is a landscape painter who works in an impressionistic manner and employs a colorist approach. She creates with both oil and dry pastel mediums.

A nature lover and tireless hiker, Maria finds inspiration in exploring the provincial parks and conservation areas of Southern Ontario. Often painting on location with dry pastels, she captures the light and feeling of each scene. She later uses her pastel sketches as references for larger oil pieces, which she creates in her studio on canvas using a palette knife. By manipulating oil paints wet-on-wet with a palette knife, she blends colors directly on the canvas, creating harmonious transitions and subtle gradients that enhance the textural complexity of her work. Embracing the unpredictability of using a palette knife and allowing the underpainting to show through, she fills her paintings with spontaneity and vitality, making the landscapes feel alive and in motion. The result is a series of textured pieces that celebrate the beauty of nature and invite viewers to experience it in a tangible, immersive way.

Maria is an Elected Member of the Society of Canadian Artists and the Ontario Society of Artists, as well as a Master Signature Member of Pastel Artists Canada. She lives and works in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.