Simona Ruscheva’s paintings feel like stepping into a dream woven from memory, myth, and folklore. Each piece is rich with detail intricate patterns, delicate linework, and bold, hypnotic colors echoing the embroidery and motifs of traditional Bulgarian textiles. There’s a meticulous care in every stroke, a reverence for the past brought to life on canvas. The symmetry, the floral elements, the geometric designs—they all feel like whispers from another time, stories passed down in threads and symbols.

But Simona Ruscheva’s work is more than just visually stunning; it tells stories. Stories of forgotten traditions, of feminine strength, of the deep, unbreakable ties between people and the land they come from. Her figures, often adorned in symbolic ornamentation, carry an air of mystery—as if they are guardians of ancient knowledge. The women she paints, regal and timeless, embody both power and tenderness, standing as keepers of cultural memory.

A Bulgarian-born artist based in the UK, Simona Ruscheva graduated Fine Art Painting in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria and is currently living and working in London, UK. She was shortlisted for Kate Bryan art prize in July 2021 and for Artrooms Awards in 2019. She was also longlisted in Jacksons Painting Prize 2023 and Holly Bush Emerging Woman Painter Prize 2022 in the Portraiture category.

Through her art, Simona Ruscheva bridges the past and present, keeping traditions alive while reinterpreting them in a way that feels deeply personal yet universally resonant. Her work reminds us that history isn’t something locked away in books—it lives in patterns, in rituals, in the stories we choose to tell and retell. And in her paintings, those stories are not just remembered—they are celebrated.

To see more works by this meticulously brilliant artist, follow her on Instagram, Pinterest & her website.