Hello! I'm Lena Rivo, an artist specializing in both “plein air” and studio painting. My style blends impressionistic and realistic elements, striving to portray the surrounding world with life-like accuracy. Each painting aims to be a window into the unique moment it captures.

I live between Portugal and Spain, drawing inspiration from diverse subjects such as seascapes, landscapes, floral still lifes, animals and human figures.

When I paint, I try to think abstractly and look for interesting contrasts, shapes and color combinations. I focus on capturing the scene's unique mood, simplifying what I see and omitting excess details to make it easier for the viewer to “enter” the painting and feel immersed in the depicted motif. While gouache is my preferred medium, I occasionally work with oils and tempera as well.

Being a passionate painter myself, I also teach other artists who want to learn how to capture the beauty of the world around us with paints. I help my students convey the illusion of light and atmosphere in their paintings and get the most from the colors on their palettes. The techniques and principles I teach are universal, allowing my students to effectively apply them with different painting mediums such as gouache, oil, acrylics, soft pastels, and watercolor.

You can learn more about my painting process from the series of articles that I write regularly and in which I share my thoughts, inspirations, discoveries, successes and challenges. The series is called The Painting Process, and you can find it on my blog at the following link: https://www.lenarivo.com/blog

When I'm not painting, my time is spent reading books, walking my dogs, and exploring flea markets to find unique objects for my still-life compositions. I try to surround myself with beauty so that every corner of my world inspires me to create.

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