Artist Olena Drobysheva envisions compelling sceneries, often including architectural structures with riveting expressive techniques. Born in Donetsk, Ukraine, she began painting at six years old. "Even then, I was taking large formats of paper, watercolor, and painted my fantasies," says Olena. She fell in love with the medium and realized it was hers. She finished her degree at the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts in 2000. Up until 2014, Olena held several solo exhibitions in Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk. Despite all odds, she continued to express her creativity by mainly working on book illustrations and design. Her eventual displacement from the occupation led her and her children to leave their homeland in 2020, leaving everything she owned except her paintings. Now living in Poland, she finds beauty in her meaningful pieces. One of her works was nominated for the IWM Top 20+ Excellence Award in 2021—her winning piece was the first to be sold at an exhibition in France—and in the winter of 2022, she had two solo exhibitions in Kyiv. The only time she is not working is when she is traveling. "On the road, I look at the world and think about how it will look in watercolor."