Russian-born, Kent-based artist Lana Arkhi is a member of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers. Her long artistic journey started from painting political murals to crafting exquisite ceramic miniatures.
Growing up in Russia, Lana’s earliest memory was drawing a horse while aged four. Lana inherited her artistic genes from her father who did metal embossing. At 15, Lana went to art college and began her artistic career painting huge, often political murals in schools and universities across the former USSR. She graduated from the Moscow University of Lenin with a Master’s Degree in teaching Arts and Crafts. Finding ceramic work the best way to exhibit her talent, in 2000, Lana created her first big porcelain collections, called “The City” and “The Family”, which later received several accolades in London. Now Lana lives in Thanet and is known for her award-winning ceramic miniatures.
“I first started working with traditional blue and white porcelain, in the studio of a famous Russian ceramicist. Traditional Russian folk art is very simplistic, so when I’d learned the technique and style, I opened my own studio to focus on smaller, more detailed pieces. I use very thin ‘000’ brushes and ceramic pigments, and then fire them in the kiln.
Of course, I’m not only a ceramics artist: I work in many different mediums and styles, from watercolours to acrylics, oils and pastels in both realistic and abstract forms. Some of my ceramic pieces, like ‘The City’, are inspired by memories of my life in Russia and the incredible architecture. ‘The Family’ doesn’t represent any family in particular – although some people think it’s a Russian royal family and others look at little details, like the corgi and the handbag, and think of the Queen. Each piece took six months to finish, and the family is still growing. At the moment I’m making new figurines for an exhibition at the Royal Miniature Society in London in June 2023.
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Explore Lana’s beautiful artwork online at lanaarkhi.com or follow @artist_lana_arkhi on Instagram.