Esther Franchuk: The Traveling Artist, Her Work, and How She Paints On Location

Esther Franchuk is a traveling artist and a Milan Art Institute coach, a former student who became known for one thing: painting on location all over the world. While most artists imagine painting their way through Greece or Italy as a someday dream, for Esther it is simply how she works. She sketches and paints wherever she travels, and she lets each place change her colors, her subjects, and her style as she records the moment in front of her. This is her story, her work, and what years of travel sketching taught her about being an artist.

She came up through the Mastery Program at Milan Art Institute, then joined as a coach, and she has spent time painting with us on a retreat in Greece and on her own trips through Italy. We sat down with her to talk about the explorer mode she works in, because seeing an artist actually live out a clear creative identity is one of the most useful things a developing artist can witness. If you have ever wondered how a working artist finds their direction, her path is a good one to study.

Who is Esther Franchuk?

Esther Franchuk is a traveling artist and a Milan Art Institute coach who started out as a student in the school. She is known for plein air work, art made outdoors and on location, and for letting the places she visits reshape what and how she paints. Rather than working from photos in a studio, she paints in the moment, in the time and light she has, which is why her work from a coastal trip looks so different from her work in an Italian city.

What makes her interesting as an artist is not a single signature subject but a way of working. She paints to capture a place, not to manufacture a finished product, and that intention runs through everything she makes. It is also why her art keeps evolving. Each new country shifts her palette and her eye, so her body of work reads almost like a travel journal told in paint.

How did Esther Franchuk become a traveling artist?

For Esther, becoming a traveling artist was an organic process, not a plan she set out to execute. Several threads of her life converged: the way she was trained in art school, her natural pull toward exploring, and years of simply painting wherever she happened to be. In her own words, it never felt like something special, because it was just how she had been taught.

It doesn’t feel like something special, I would say, because it was just the way I was taught. You always go for plein air. You always go for painting outside. Every time you have the opportunity to, you always bring art on the go, because you’re an artist and you cannot go on a trip and not paint there. At one point, I just discovered every time I go places, my art changes and the way I’m painting changes and the subject matter changes. The color changes, and it’s affected by the culture and colors and so many things that I see.

The practice came first, and the identity came later. She had been painting on location for years before she ever called herself a traveling artist. The naming happened in Italy.

When I moved to Italy and I was living in Florence and I was taking trips to different parts of Italy from Florence, I think that was when I finally started to brand it, like, “Yes, I’m an explorer.”

That gap between doing the thing and claiming the thing is worth sitting with. Esther was already a traveling artist long before she said the words out loud. Many artists are further into their identity than they realize, which is one of the quiet lessons in how to find your art style: your direction often reveals itself in what you already do without thinking.

What kind of art does Esther Franchuk make?

Esther Franchuk makes travel sketches and plein air paintings, work created outdoors and on location rather than from photographs at home. Her subjects and colors shift with each place, so the work itself becomes a record of where she has been and how that place felt. A coastal page in soft blues and greens carries a completely different mood from a study made in an Italian hill town, and that is the point.

Travel sketching also changes how an artist sees. When you paint a place on the spot, you are forced to observe quickly, simplify what is in front of you, and respond to real light instead of a flattened photo. That habit of direct observation is the same muscle behind the benefits of drawing and doodling, and it sharpens far faster on location than it ever does at a desk. It is also a healthier way to gather material than relying only on a screen, which is why thinking carefully about reference photos for painting matters even for artists who love to work from life.

What did Esther Franchuk learn from painting in Greece?

The Milan Art retreat in Greece taught Esther to slow down and stop treating every piece as a product she had to finish. She came in as someone who lived in production mode, pressuring herself to complete everything she started, a useful habit when you are becoming a professional, but one with real costs. Greece loosened that grip.

I really loved the art retreat to Greece. It enriched my art in so many ways. I felt like during the trip with Milans, I just allowed myself to feel more and to be more in the moment, because we had a lot of different techniques and different workshops and also different mediums. It was like, okay, it’s not about finishing anything or creating a final product. It was more about being in the moment and to actually allow yourself to have this experience and to make a memory.

That shift, from finishing pieces to capturing moments, changed what her work was for. As she paints, she pays attention to how she felt, what she did, the smells in the air, what she saw with her own eyes. The painting becomes a way to hold the beauty of the moment itself, not a deadline to meet.

I felt like Greece helped me to slow down and just enjoy life and enjoy the simple beauty of being and living and feeling. It was life-changing, but in a different way than the school itself or other trips I took. I loved all of the community and being able to connect with the artist community from all over the world.

What can you learn from Esther Franchuk’s approach?

Esther’s practice offers a few clear lessons any artist can use, whether or not they ever paint abroad. The first is about people, the second is about belonging, and the third is about how new places fuel the work itself.

Online learning and social media are genuinely powerful ways to connect with like-minded artists. These platforms let you meet people from all over the world and build real relationships, ones that only deepen when you finally meet in person. Esther’s community came from exactly this kind of connection.

Traveling and painting alongside other artists can feel like coming home. The artists you meet may come from different countries and cultures, and yet they feel familiar, because they are the same as you in the ways that matter most. That sense of recognition is part of what makes group painting trips so meaningful.

Traveling lets you see new things and work with new materials, and that changes your art. New surroundings inform your choices and push your work in a fresh, more inspired direction. This is the explorer identity in action, and it is one of many ways an artist can grow into a style that is genuinely their own. If you are not yet sure what that looks like for you, how to know your art style helps you read the signs you may already be giving off.

How can you start travel sketching like Esther?

You do not need a plane ticket to begin working the way Esther does. The next time you go anywhere, even an afternoon across town, bring a small sketchbook and a single medium, and make one quick study of where you are before you reach for your phone. Let the place set your palette by mixing your colors from what you actually see around you rather than your usual favorites. And try leaving a study unfinished on purpose, so the goal becomes capturing the moment instead of producing a polished piece. That is the entire practice, and it is available to you wherever you happen to be standing.

If this way of working speaks to you, the best next step is to build the underlying skills so you can paint anything you see with confidence. Our free Two Week Challenge is built for exactly that beginning, and the rest of our find your art style collection is here when you want to keep going. Esther Franchuk became a traveling artist by doing the work long before she had a name for it. You can start the same way, today, with one small study of wherever you are.

Frequently asked questions

Who is Esther Franchuk?

Esther Franchuk is a traveling artist and a Milan Art Institute coach who began as a student in the school's Mastery Program. She is known for painting on location around the world, including a Milan Art retreat in Greece and time spent living and painting in Italy. Her work centers on capturing a place in the moment rather than producing a polished final piece.

What kind of art does Esther Franchuk make?

Esther Franchuk makes travel sketches and plein air paintings, work created outdoors and on location rather than from photos in a studio. Her subjects, colors, and style shift with each place she visits, so a coastal trip and a city in Italy produce noticeably different work. She paints to record how a moment looked and felt, not to chase a finished product.

How did Esther Franchuk become a traveling artist?

It happened organically. Esther was taught in art school to always paint outside and to bring art with her on every trip, so painting on location became second nature. Over time she noticed her art changed with each new place, and once she moved to Italy and began taking trips from Florence, she formally claimed the explorer identity that her practice already reflected.

Is there an Esther Franchuk art course?

Esther Franchuk coaches inside the Milan Art Institute, where she works with students in the Mastery Program rather than running a standalone branded course. The clearest way to learn the approach she teaches is through the Mastery Program itself or by starting with the free Two Week Challenge, both of which cover the foundations of painting and finding your own artistic direction.

What is travel sketching or plein air painting?

Travel sketching, often called plein air painting when done with paint, means making art outdoors and on location instead of working from a photo at home. You paint what is in front of you in the time and light you have. It trains you to observe quickly, simplify a scene, and respond to a place directly, which is exactly the practice that shaped Esther Franchuk's work.

What did Esther Franchuk learn from painting in Greece?

She learned to slow down and stop treating every piece as a product to finish. On the Milan Art retreat in Greece, she let herself stay in the moment, work across different mediums and techniques, and make a memory instead of a final painting. She also valued connecting with an artist community drawn from all over the world.