There are artists who paint what they see — and there are artists who paint what they feel. Kirana Haag belongs beautifully to the latter.
With a practice rooted in emotion, colour and quiet observation, Kirana creates abstract and colour field works that explore the delicate relationship between chaos and beauty. Her paintings begin with raw feeling — layered, intuitive, and expressive — before evolving into compositions that invite the viewer to slow down, reflect and discover their own meaning within the work.
Originally trained as a nurse and naturopath, Kirana brings a deep sense of empathy and awareness into her creative life. Her journey through care and healing continues to inform her art, allowing her to see both the visible and invisible threads that connect us. This sensitivity translates onto the canvas through nuanced colour, expressive marks, and a devotion to capturing fleeting moments of light, memory and emotional resonance.
At ArtSHINE, Kirana’s commitment to growth, perseverance and self-reflection has shaped a practice that is both disciplined and deeply intuitive. As she prepares for her upcoming solo exhibition, her work continues to evolve — grounded in beauty, driven by feeling, and sustained by an unwavering dedication to painting every single day.
We are delighted to share Kirana’s creative journey with you.
1. Can you share a little about your creative journey?
I have been creative all my life. I wrote and painted from a very early age, partially because of a need to create a more beautiful world in my mind than the one surrounding me.
Painting is a basic need for me, and I create daily. My creative process starts with emotions and putting them onto the canvas in whichever chaotic way they come. The next part of the process is to find the beauty in the chaos. This is not to say that everything is beautiful, but to clarify that we can find beauty in everything if we allow ourselves to look for it. In all my practice, it has been the driving force to find the beauty. My art itself has evolved around that, from semi-abstract to abstract colour field expressionism.
2. How would you describe your creative practice today?
I set myself challenges. This year I have been concentrating on my two upcoming exhibitions and on entering national and international art prizes. I start my painting process by exploring ideas, themes, notions, emotions, poems, sentences and words.
Practically, that means I often start my studio day with reading and letting inner images arise from the words, the scenes, the expressions. Those images I take to my sketchbook or directly onto the canvas, even to start big artworks. Somebody looking into my studio would see me walking between one or more books and many different canvases, all slowly evolving towards their moment of being finished.
When I feel an artwork is getting closer to being finished, I often spend a lot of time just watching, gazing, looking from different angles and trying to see and feel what still needs to be done, slowing myself down on purpose not to overdo it. I very much hope at this stage that I can simply add all it needs, exactly all it needs. This process takes time and needs a lot of patience as well as perseverance.
3. What usually inspires your work?
It is mainly beauty — the beauty in moments of our daily lives, beautiful moments between people, beautiful scenes in books, touching poems, dreams, light and shadow in nature, the ripple effect of the wind on water, a dive into the ocean and how the colours change when opening your eyes underwater, smiles and what they do with the light in our eyes.
It is also the wish to integrate, to include and to make visible all that which so easily goes unseen and unrecognised.
4. What does creativity mean to you personally?
Creativity is always with me. It means seeing and registering all those moments I have been describing. Creativity takes me out of tricky situations and helps me find solutions and words towards solutions. It very much helps me enjoy all aspects of life.
5. If you had to describe yourself and your work in five words, what would they be — and why?
Emotionally Deep — it’s important to me to feel the world around me and express it in colour.
Creative — art is a vital form of my self-expression.
Dedicated — I am driven by the need to express and communicate through colour and marks.
Colourful — which brings joy and great satisfaction when I have been able to mix exactly the right colour I have been seeing in my inner eye. That is a daily cycle between enjoyment, deep satisfaction and “trying again.”
Free-spirited.
6. Before fully committing to your creative practice, did you have a previous career or life chapter?
I started my career as a nurse and a naturopath, while art was always my outlet and balance point and therefore a need. I fully developed my empathy in that time and started to understand myself and others. It helps me to feel the visible and invisible world around me. I now think, talk and paint about it.
7. How did you first discover ArtSHINE, and what drew you to be part of the community or accelerator?
I discovered ArtSHINE through an exhibition I visited, and I felt intrigued by how Vinh works and by his offer to artists.
8. What has your experience with ArtSHINE been like so far?
I feel more clarity around my own practice and the direction I want to take.
9. What has been one of the most meaningful challenges in your creative journey?
My biggest challenge is to live with rejection, to step away from taking it personally and to keep painting.
10. What advice would you give to creatives who are still finding their voice or considering a pivot into creative life?
I do teach art and keep hearing myself say repeatedly to my students to just keep going, to persevere and to be friendly and kind to themselves, to challenge themselves at the same time and to have lots of patience.
11. Is there a current or upcoming project you’re excited about that you’d like to share?
I am very much looking forward to my upcoming solo exhibition in May with ArtSHINE, which I am currently painting for.
12. Looking ahead, what does “success” look like for you as a creative — creatively, personally, or professionally?
It means that I can keep supporting myself as a full-time artist for the rest of my life. It means to be recognised, to keep creating and painting, to keep being excited about my work, to keep loving my work and to show up in my studio with all of me.
Ready to Begin Your Creative Journey?
Are you a creative or a Pivoter, someone ready to start a new career or transition into the world of art and design?
Don’t wait for the “perfect moment.”
The best way to grow is to start and to keep showing up.
At ArtSHINE, our Launchpad & Accelerator Program is designed to guide you step by step – helping you discover your strengths, build your portfolio, and turn your passion into a sustainable career.
Take the leap today: LPA.artshine.com
Your journey starts now
