Her Secret Sanctuary (2026) Original Acrylic Painting by Dasha Pogodina

This painting will come to you stretched on a wooden stretcher and completely ready to be placed in the interior.
ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Her Secret Sanctuary belongs to the Madeleine series, where memory is not treated as a fixed record, but as an intimate construction shaped by emotion, atmosphere, and the quiet authority of everyday things. In this painting, the interior becomes more than a setting: it functions as a psychological space, carefully arranged around the female figure through flowers, soft light, and the calm presence of a resting dog. These elements create a sense of enclosure and tenderness, as if the room itself were holding and protecting an inner life.
What makes the work compelling is the tension it sustains between vulnerability and self-possession. The figure does not perform for the viewer; she remains turned inward, inhabiting a space that feels private, almost withheld. In this sense, the “sanctuary” of the title is not escapist fantasy, but a necessary act of self-preservation — a place where sensitivity can exist without defense. As in the broader Madeleine series, the work suggests that memory is bound to spaces like this: spaces where solitude, beauty, and emotional truth quietly gather and take form.

Madeleine series
In the Madeleine series, Daria Pogodina turns to the phenomenon of involuntary memory, known in psychology and culture as the “Proust effect.” The artist explores how ordinary objects and sensory impressions from the past are transformed into emotional anchors—inner pillars of the self.
The objects and images chosen by the author—such as a mother’s sweater, childhood food, or the voice of a television announcer—become points of access to the unconscious resources of the psyche, places of comfort and stabilization. Without falling into nostalgic idealization, Pogodina captures the subtle mechanism of interaction between the conscious and the unconscious, where the mundane becomes sacred, and seemingly banal details acquire profound meaning.
These works are not about escaping the present into the past, but about seeking inner light and strength in both personal and collective experience—a testament to the human ability to find resilience in the everyday during times of crisis.

Materials used:

Acrylic

Details:

• Acrylic painting on Canvas
• One of a kind artwork
• Size: 90 x 100 x 2cm (unframed) / 90 x 100cm (actual image size)
• Ready to hang
• Signed on the front
• Style: Impressionistic
• Subject: People and portraits