This exhibition is a collection of impressions captured by the artist during travels through Italy, Spain, and Montenegro. These works are more than landscapes — they are personal emotions, light, air, fleeting moments, and emotional memories of places impossible to forget.

Nadezhda Pestova is a Russian artist, graduate of the Ilya Glazunov Russian Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. She participated in the Academy’s exhibitions at the Manege exhibition halls in Moscow and Saint Petersburg and has been a member of the Creative Union of Artists of Russia since 2016. Currently, she is the head of the MGIMO Art Studio and a teacher at the Sergey Andriaka Academy of Watercolor and Fine Arts. She is also a постоянный participant in Russian and international exhibitions and plein air projects.

“When I first saw the sea, saying that I was amazed would mean saying nothing. To this day, it remains the most beautiful sight in the world for me.”

The exhibition features sketches created during journeys: Lake Iseo surrounded by majestic Italian mountains, ancient Toledo with its sandy colors and fortress walls, and the Bay of Kotor, where the same landscape transformed every hour with changing light and weather.

“Walking through Toledo, I felt as if I were inside an ancient fairy tale.”

A special place in these works belongs to the sea and the mountains — alive, ever-changing, filled with movement and the energy of nature. Mountain sunsets, the rhythm of Italian cypress trees, old European towns, and quiet seaside landscapes all become part of the artist’s visual storytelling.

“The sea is always alive and always different. Filled with immense energy, it gives that energy to me as well.”

Most of the works were created in watercolor and gouache directly during the travels themselves — quick, vivid impressions preserved through color and light.