The Woman of the Rain Haunted Painting
Svetlana Telets felt as if outside forces guided her hands while painting The Woman of the Rain. The result is a painting that has been returned to Svetlana multiple times due to the owners claiming to experience paranormal phenomena with the painting in their homes.
Experiences such as nightmares, anxiety, and seeing shadow figures in their homes.
But, is it possible for this painting to be haunted? Listen now.
Have you ever felt uncomfortable around a painting?
Has a painting caused you to see full-fledged entities in your home?
Can a spirit take possession of an artist and cause them to create a haunted painting?
What is up, Bizarros? This week, we dive into the mysterious painting, The Woman Of The Rain.
What Is The Women Of The Rain?
Phenomena surrounding the painting range from just feeling uncomfortable around the painting to seeing full-fledged entities in their home.
Some have even claimed the woman from the painting herself.
Some have even claimed the woman from the painting herself.
Reminds me of the painting from the new IT films.
It is believed that the painting does not need to be in the home for it to impact you, but you do have to be in possession. Once you relinquish possession of the painting, the terrorizing ends.
So, let’s talk about how it came to be; what it looks like, and then get into some of the spooky encounters that various owners have had with The Woman in the Rain.
Creating the Painting
The Woman of the Rain, or as some people refer to it as The Rain Woman, was created by Svetlana Telets, who was born in 1973 and studied at the Odessa Art University.
She is a painter who specializes in both surrealistic and abstract art.
Abstract and surrealistic was her preferred style.
Dreamlike qualities and vibrant use of color were her bags.
Throughout her years of painting, she has participated in countless art exhibitions and has won several awards for her work.
Prior to painting the Woman of the Rain, Svetlana remembers that for about 6 months, she had very creepy moments of feeling like she was being watched.
She tried her best to brush it off, but this anxious feeling that she was being followed persisted.
It all came to a head on a particular morning.
It was a bright and sunny day in 1996, and she decided to paint, so she sat down in front of a blank canvas.
She originally did not have any intention or idea of what she wanted to paint, but as she sat there looking at the white canvas paper, a figure started materializing in her mind.
It was forming incredibly clear – more clearly than any other vision or inspiration had manifested.
She saw the woman’s face, colors, shades – everything. It felt like magic, this burst of clarity inside her mind, and immediately, her hand started brushing across the canvas.
It almost felt like she was no longer in control of what she was doing.
She claims it was like someone was guiding her hand, and she finished the majority of the painting in just 5 hours.
She spent the next month or so refining the artwork, but for the most part, the painting was completed in that 5-hour window.
She described it almost like her body, her hand, and her paintbrush were a tool being used by someone or something else to create this painting.
Or, rather, conjure up this painting.
A quote from Svetlana:
“One day, I sat in front of a blank canvas and thought what to draw. Suddenly, I clearly saw the contours of a woman, her face, the colors, the shades. In an instant, I noticed all the details of the image. It seemed like someone else was controlling my hand.”
Creepy, right?
So again, she took about a month to put some finishing touches on it. Then, she brought it to a nearby art salon to display her work.
But before we get into that, let’s describe the painting.
The Rain Woman Painting
The painting is of a woman from the waist up. It is sort of elongated and a little distorted. The background of the painting gives the idea of a stormy, rainy sky.
The pale woman is dressed in all black, and every inch of her body, other than her face, is completely covered by the black clothing.
She is also wearing a black wide-brim hat that goes from one side of the painting to the other; essentially, it covers the full width.
Her expression is a little hard to tell, but her eyes are looking down, and it’s kind of a melancholy, droopy expression, I would say. Although, I think, like much art, it’s open to interpretation.
Maybe a little sneaky, like she knows something that you don’t know.
So again, after completing the painting. Svetlana put it up in an art gallery.
While there, many art enthusiasts approached Svetlana and shared that the painting truly resonated with them, even if they couldn’t put their finger on why.
Some initially felt the same scary feeling that Svetlana experienced prior to buying it, a sort of uneasiness and anxiety. However, others were drawn to it, so she ended up selling it.
There have been 3 owners of the painting that I know of, so we’ll go through each of their experiences with the Woman of the Rain.
The Rain Woman Haunting the Owners
The First Owner Of The Haunted Painting
The first person who bought the painting was a businesswoman named Larisa.
As far as I know, although I admit it wasn’t explicitly stated – she would have been the woman who purchased the painting around the time it was displayed in the art gallery.
She felt very drawn and connected to the painting and, upon purchase, decided to hang it up in her bedroom.
However, it wasn’t long after purchasing the Woman of the Rain that she was actively trying to get rid of the painting.
She reported that very shortly after hanging up The Woman of the Rain, she started feeling like someone was watching her.
Whether she was walking in the hallway, sitting down to eat breakfast, or lying in her bed at night – she felt eyes on her.
Also, although hard to explain, she reported that despite living alone, there felt like another presence in her home. Just a persistent feeling that she wasn’t alone.
These eerie feelings were the strongest, of course, in her bedroom.
It is reported that she gave Svetlana a call and stated,
“Please pick her up. I can not sleep. It seems that there is someone in the apartment besides me. I even took it off the wall and hid it behind the closet.”
Second Owner Of the Woman Of The Rain
I don’t know if it was a money-back guarantee type of thing or if Svetlana got to keep the profit, but regardless, The Woman of the Rain found her way back to Svetlana.
Again, she attended art galleries, displaying her paintings and letting folks know she was for sale.
The second person interested in buying the Woman of the Rain was a young man named Eugene.
Also, I have no idea how much this painting was going for. No idea.
So Eugene purchased the painting and ended up hanging her up in his living room.
He had heard in passing and discussion with Svetlana about its history and how it affected the first owner, but Eugene didn’t believe in all that supernatural mambo jumbo.
It didn’t take long for that to quickly change, though.
Almost immediately after putting the painting up on his living room wall, he started having his own experiences.
It started as dreams. Whether it was a nightmare or a normal, typical dream – the woman in the painting seemed to always invade them.
No matter what he did, she found her way into his dreams. At first, it was just unusual, but the feelings of terror he had during the dreams and upon waking were terrible.
Then, he started noticing things while awake.
Wandering around his home, he started seeing things in the corner of his eye. At first, he attributed it to poor sleep, maybe just seeing things.
But then the shadows he saw became more pronounced and shaped like a woman.
He never got a clear picture of whatever he was seeing around his home, but after hearing of the first owner’s stories and how quickly everything went downhill in his own home, he, too, returned the painting to Svetlana.
A quote from what he told Svetlana:
“I dream of her. Every night, she appears and follows me like a shadow.”
Third Owner Of The Ukrainian Artist’s Strange Painting
The painting was sold a third time. Again, this owner thought that they would be the outlier, that they could own The Woman of the Rain and not experience anything supernatural.
And, of course, they were wrong. This nameless owner also immediately started feeling uneasy around the painting as soon as it entered their home.
The thing that really stuck out to this owner was the woman’s eyes. Once hanging, he always felt like her eyes were on him, no matter where in the room he was.
It was the whiteness of her eyes that really got to him. He felt that her white eyes were everywhere, and he had this sinking feeling that he would end up drowning in them.
Here is a quote from the man:
“At first, I didn’t notice how white her eyes were,” the buyer reportedly said, “and then they began to appear everywhere. “It seemed like just a little bit longer, and I would drown in them. I’d rather buy something classic.”
And that was that he, too, returned the painting to Svetlana.
Fourth Owner Of The Original Painting
Naturally, after three failed attempts at ownership, Svetlana’s Woman of the Rain hung dormant for years.
She was hung in a furniture salon in (Vee-nit-suh) Ukraine, for a while, and apparently, patrons of the shop claimed to have dreams of the woman after visiting the shop.
Some felt like they knew the woman in the painting, like they had met her before but weren’t quite able to place her.
Others even claimed to see the woman in their homes, which I could only assume lost the furniture showroom some business.
Anyway, regardless, Svetlana didn’t feel a rush to sell or get rid of the painting. And she never really claimed whether or not she experienced anything herself after actually getting the painting out.
Almost like it was inside her, maybe, or haunting her until she got it painted.
But Svetlana had this feeling that the owner that was truly meant to her, the Woman of the Rain, would show up, like destiny, so to speak.
She couldn’t force it and wasn’t going to try anymore.
About 11 years after the third owner, The Woman of the Rain was purchased in 2007 by the musician Sergei Skachko, who felt strongly that the picture belonged with him.
He actually sought it out and tracked the Svetlana and the painting down after reading an article about it.
He was willing to take the risks that accompanied the painting and all the creepiness, uneasiness, shadow figures, and the like.
He ended up bringing it back to Russia with him, hung it up, and was very satisfied with it. However, despite still not wanting to get rid of it, it seems that Sergei took a different approach to the painting.
A quote from Svetlana:
“I saw a video clip where Sergei Skachkov showed ‘Rain Woman’ hung up near his desk. He said that she walks around the room at night, and his wife is afraid of her.
His wife has said that since he bought ‘Rain Woman,’ they began to quarrel often, everything in the house broke down, and someone seemingly walked around the apartment at night. Therefore, when her husband went on tour, she removed the picture and hid it away from home.”
So, they still have it, so to speak, and maybe things have changed, but it’s just not openly on display in their home anymore.
Is The Woman Of The Rain Really Haunted?
What do you think, Bizarros? Is the Woman Of The Rain really haunted?
Could it be that the previous owners just had a creepy feeling from the painting, and the legend grew?
Or did the rumors of a creepy painting plant a seed in their mind, causing them to believe something paranormal was happening because of the painting?
Would you hang this painting in your art gallery? Let us know in the comments.