Elena Schelchkova was born in Leningrad in 1960. Lives and works in St Petersburg.
Graduated from Leningrad Art and Graphics College in 1980.
Member of the Artists’ Creative Union (IFA UNESCO), member of the Russian Artists’ Union.
Practices painting, graphics, works with textiles, dolls, makes performances. Participant of exhibitions, art contests and festivals in Russia and abroad. The organizer of more than thirty solo shows, performances and art-projects. She’s been published in magazines, catalogs. An award winner of «Open-Air in Letny Sad» contest. Her works are in the collections of St Petersburg Museum of Toys, Museum of Religion History (St Petersburg), Lonnstrom’s Museum of Modern Art (Rauma, Finland), Novosibirsk National Art Museum, Mayor’s House in Pruskov (Poland), and also in private collections in Russia, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, England, South Korea, Israel. Elena Schelchkova:
«I started to participate in exhibitions in 1985. In the beginning of my artistic career I engaged myself with weaving and graphics. Monotyping in oil has become my main graphics technique. Speed of work, which is required by this technique, allows me to fix the image from memory, like a snapshot of reality. In monotyping (monotype greek – one print) spontaneity and control of the unpredictable combine. Paint smudges, dense, almost black areas and rubbing to the white leaf create different natural textures, space and depth. I use the so-called “earth” paints, earthy hues from black, golden and brown to viridine green. Such colors carry the feeling of unreality, enigma, like the essence of art, which is contemplation. The effect of evening lighting, when bright colors disappear and shadows soften. When I reach the feeling of balance in the characters of my works, whether it be “House”, “Spring”, “Water Lilies in a Night Pond", a boy absorbed into piling his cubes in a pyramid or abstract works like “Signs”, I consider the work to be finished. Though it happens that the characters go on the racket, and a lost Maiden comes across a Unicorn. Monotyping is a technique on the brink of painting and graphics. Starting from the new millennium, I create works in painting. In painting I pretty often use the same colors as in graphics: "Fontanka Courtyards" series (2008), "Window" (2011), "Image" (2010), "Actresses" series (2007), "Gazing at the Moon" (2009). In the work "Call Mom" white and black is elaborated by grass-like green. Still life has become for me a genre in which I can express my mood in color. Main format is a square. Each work is a dedication to some color. "A Tangerine And Two Figs” – to orange, "A Red Still Life" - to red, "Fruit" - to green, "A Bouquet And a Butterfly" - to black, "Pears" - to white». |
