I am Galya Mead, and I am an artist and a photographer nowadays, even though I used to be many other things – an interpreter, a teacher, an art museum researcher. Originally from Russia, for the last 25 years I’ve lived in rural England and treasure this land very much.

I love life, I love art, I love the sky and fields, countryside landscapes, animals and architecture; I love my family and friends, and I do love to make people happy by cooking proper feasts for them now and then. Most of all, I like to travel, and we do travel a lot. I look at life through my camera view-finder, taking a break to pause and to express my feelings in my numerous drawings and collages, which are a strange concoction of mixed media – paper cuts, my own photos, acrylic paint, pastel, charcoal, and chalk on canvases. For me, my creations are partly my impressions, partly fragments of music I listen to while working on them. If I could bring that to others, that would make me very happy.

As an artist, I mostly work in the landscape/travel genre. This is where I often get inspiration for my drawings, sketches, and collages, as I try to express my outlook on life through scenes of the countryside/cities. I usually work in colour pencils, gouache, pastel, watercolour, acrylic and in mixed media – collage on canvas, topped with acrylic, ink, coal, pastels, anything goes really. The main goal is to bring my feelings through to my spectators. For the last several years, I’ve also created picture books. Last year, I published a book about Haunted Norwich. This year, I am working on a book about an Old English House. Recently, in December 2025, I had a personal exhibition at Gallery 56, Norwich, UK, which was rather successful. This year, I am starting my pet portrait adventure. I participated in several art book projects in Russia, as well as in issue 12 of Arts of Hearts Project international magazine.