Local Artist

Masha Strebkova is a local artist who works from her home studio on Montevina Road. Earlier this summer, she participated in the Silicon Valley Open Studios tour, which featured hundreds of local artists displaying their work throughout Silicon Valley. She was the only artist in the mountains included on the tour.

Masha paints large-scale abstract works on raw canvas. Her husband builds the wooden frames in her home studio. She stretches and attaches the canvas and gets to work. Working with raw canvas is different from painting on a coated canvas. On a coated canvas, an artist can paint over or correct their work. On a raw canvas, once the paint is applied, it becomes part of the fabric and cannot be changed.

Masha explained that her artistic process begins not with an image, but with a feeling—often curiosity, wonder, tenderness, or the quiet balance between uncertainty and hope. Paint becomes a language for what is difficult to express in words.

She is drawn to raw surfaces and stains. She shared, “I allow chance, dilution, and gravity to participate in the work, treating the canvas as a place where control and surrender coexist. Each painting evolves slowly, through attention and listening rather than resolution. My paintings are not illustrations of emotion, but containers for it—spaces where feeling can exist without explanation.”

You can view Masha’s work at mashastrebkova. art, or on Instagram (@ masha_strebkova_art). Some of her work will be featured in Skyland Community Church’s Whitaker Hall in November.