Mountains

 

Toma Stenko, In the Mountains, 2025, acrylic on canvas, 160 x 300cm

 
 
 

Toma Stenko, one of the artists I have been fortunate to represent for several years and who has since become a close friend, has started a new series. It is all about the mountains.

That’s the thing about living on the Black Sea, especially in Sochi - the sea and the mountains both claim the heart in equal measure in a region which was once home to the Amazons, where Hercules took the belt of the Amazon Queen Hippolyta, and where Jason and the Argonauts searched for the Golden Fleece.

 

Toma Stenko, My Heart is in the Mountains, 2025, acrylic on canvas, 165 x 278cm

 

Stenko is a master of capturing movement, the flow of light and energy that is essential to life - and she has done so beautifully in the new series, of which these artworks are just the beginning.

Stenko’s work is always at the core a quest to see the visible in the invisible, the infinite in the finite - to me, that has always been the essence of “mountains”.

 
 
 

Toma Stenko, Horse in the Mountains, 2025, acrylic on canvas

 

And of course, there are the horses. Horses feature prominently in her life and early memories and roam in her imagination in all of her favourite places - like the mountains.

Born in Georgia in 1980, Stenko is an award-winning artist, film director, and fashion designer who is a graduate of the Central Saint Martins University of Art and Design, London. Her work has been part of numerous international exhibitions and is collected around the world.

You can follow Toma on her IG @toma_stenko

 
 
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