Nadiah Fellah talks to painter Vera Iliatova on the occasion of the exhibition Vera Iliatova: Days of Never at Monya Rowe Gallery, New York, on view through April 13, 2013.

Iliatova comments: "Color is very important in my process and it is the first thing that I think about when I start each painting. For me, color is what grounds each painting in a real experience regardless of how invented the narrative becomes. All my paintings start from direct observation of landscape, often from the view outside of my studio window. Eventually, the space in the paintings becomes more invented than real, but the color always stays specific to the observed light. I am constantly stunned by Matisse’s laconic way of representing light through color. I also spend a lot of time looking at the way Jane Freilicher, Louisa Matthiasdottir and Fairfield Porter use color in their paintings to create atmosphere and light."