Elizaveta Urakova

I’m Lisa, a painter and art educator with a strong foundation in both studio practice and art history. My training was intensive and academic — I graduated from Cheboksary Art School in Russia in 2021 with a Diploma in Painting, having completed nearly 1,400 hours each of drawing and painting, plus almost 1,000 hours of composition and art analysis. I went on to complete a Bachelor’s degree in Art History at Trnava University in Slovakia in 2026. I’ve kept up an active studio practice since graduating, which you can see some of in my video, and that combination of rigorous technical training and art historical knowledge gives me a pretty complete view of painting — both how to make it and how to really look at it.

My work has been shown internationally, including a solo exhibition at Umean.o Vol.7 in Liptovský Mikuláš, Slovakia in 2023, and a group exhibition through the Generation M programme in partnership with the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow in 2020. In 2021 I was awarded 2nd Prize in the Takeda.Art/Help “The Rule of the Exception” international competition at the Ekaterina Cultural Foundation in Moscow, an open competition that received entries from 69 cities across 22 countries. I have also completed internships at the Museo del Codex in Rossano, Italy and the Barviskyi Art Gallery in Vienna, Austria.

Since graduating I have led drawing and painting workshops for adults and children across Russia, Turkey, and Slovakia, adapting my approach to different levels and goals — from complete beginners to students preparing portfolios for art school admission. I teach drawing, oil painting, watercolor, and acrylics, and I work with each student individually based on where they are and what they want to achieve.

My approach is rooted in academic fundamentals — how to really see proportions, how to mix and control color, how light builds form, how to organize a composition that actually holds together. In my experience these are the things that unlock everything else, whatever direction a student wants to take their work. I don’t teach them as dry theory but as practical tools we apply directly to whatever you’re creating.

Lessons are built around you — your level, your medium, your goals. We start by understanding where you are and what you want to get out of the lessons, and we build from there. Depending on your level that might mean working through proportion and value studies, color theory exercises, or breaking down composition through paintings we look at together. For students preparing for art school, we focus specifically on portfolio pieces and the technical fundamentals that reviewers look for.

Because I also have an art history background, lessons sometimes include looking at paintings together and talking about what’s technically happening in them. It sounds like extra work but it genuinely changes how students see and think about their own practice. I find it especially useful for students who want to develop not just technical skill but a real visual language of their own.

My feedback is analytical and direct — we look at what’s working, identify what isn’t, and work out specifically how to improve it. Practice makes perfect, and I believe consistent, honest feedback is how real progress happens.

If that sounds good, book a first lesson - and before you do, feel free to send me a quick message with your current level, what medium you want to work in, and what you're hoping to get out of lessons. That way we can hit the ground running from the first session.