Austrian artist Vera Hoi creates abstract, landscape-inspired paintings that explore the quiet intersections between nature and the self. Each work emerges from a meditative dialogue with the environment, not as a subject to depict, but as a state to inhabit. Guided by the rhythm of stillness and perception, Vera transforms color and light into fields of emotional resonance. For collectors, these works offer more than imagery; they offer moments of calm that invite slow looking and inner reflection.Tell us about who you are and what you do. What’s your background?I am a contemporary artist working with landscape-based abstraction. My practice is guided by the idea that nature is not only an outer landscape, but also an inner state. Painting, for me, is a way to enter a quieter space: a moment of stillness where perception becomes more attentive and genuine. I do not approach the canvas to represent a landscape, but to experience it from within as a field of presence.Through atmospheric color fields, subtle transitions, and organic traces, I explore how memory, belonging, and identity can be sensed not through fixed form, but through mood and resonance. My work often lingers between clarity and dissolution, movement and stillness, like the pause between breathing in and breathing out.What’s your studio like, and how does your environment influence your work?My studio is located in my home, surrounded by nature. From the window, I can see the lake and the distant line of the mountains, and this quiet view has become an essential part of my working process. I work in an atmosphere of solitude—not as isolation, but as a way to listen more deeply.The stillness of the landscape around me sets the rhythm of my painting. I am influenced less by specific scenery and more by the feeling of space, air, and slow observation. The studio becomes an extension of the landscape, a place where I can shift from the outer world into a more intuitive, inner state of perception.Do you plan your paintings in advance or let them evolve organically? How do you know when a piece is finished?I work in project-based series, so my paintings begin with a clearly defined concept rather than pure improvisation. Before I start, I spend time developing the visual language of the project—collecting impressions, mapping emotional atmospheres, and deciding which elements will carry the meaning. Yet even within this framework, intuition remains important.Once the concept is in place, I allow the painting to find its own rhythm and adjust the flow of the work in response to what appears on the surface. A piece is finished when it aligns with the emotional intention of the project, when the image no longer just describes, but embodies the state I wanted to capture.Who are your biggest influences and why?I am influenced less by other artists and more by states of perception, by the silence of distant landscapes, by moments when memory blurs the boundary between what is seen and what is felt. Nature, migration, and the experience of living between places have shaped my artistic language more than any single reference.I am drawn to gestures of disappearance, to subtle traces rather than declarations. What moves me are quiet forms of presence: the way light touches water, how a branch casts a shadow that lasts only for a moment. These fleeting impressions carry more truth for me than fixed symbols. They remind me that identity, like nature, is fluid, shifting, and always in transition.How do you hope viewers respond to your works? What do you want them to feel?I don’t expect viewers to decode a message. Instead, I hope they enter a slower rhythm of seeing. My paintings are not meant to explain, but to offer a space where the eye can rest and the mind can breathe. In a world of constant visual urgency, I want my work to feel like a quiet pause—a moment where something soft and internal becomes perceptible again. I believe that true connection happens not through explanation, but through resonance.What are you currently working on? Is there anything our collectors should be on the lookout for, whether it is a body of work, an exhibition, press, or something else?I am currently working on an ongoing series titled Shadow Migration, which explores the idea of inner landscapes and the feeling of belonging beyond geography. The series reflects on transition not as a moment of loss, but as a subtle transformation of perception. These new works continue my interest in nature as an emotional map, where water, horizons, and abstract terrains become metaphors for movement, memory, and inner stability.If your work had a soundtrack, what would it sound like?It would sound like slow, ambient tones, almost like distant breathing. It would be a sound that doesn’t demand attention but creates space around it. Something between silence and a quiet pulse, like light moving across water.If your art could be displayed anywhere in the world, where would it be?I imagine my work in a place where stillness is possible, perhaps in a quiet room overlooking water or in a gallery that allows viewers to pause and breathe. For me, location is less a city than a state of presence.The post Vera Hoi: Painting as a State of Presence appeared first on Canvas: A Blog By Saatchi Art.