MEET THE ARTIST
" As an artist, I am interested in the beauty and courage of the living being, the positive aspect of the life experience. I portray life at its best, in its dynamics, in the rush of happiness, in the desire to breathe, shine, and move. "
Anna is a multidisciplinary artist with a rich and diverse background in the arts. After completing her higher art education, she worked as an interior designer in Moscow before moving to England in early 2000 where she graduated from the Cambridge School of Art to pursue a career in illustration. Anna successfully worked as an illustrator for a few years and published several books in Europe, the UK, and the USA (under a different name). However, Anna's true passion lies in painting, and a few years ago, she devoted herself entirely to this art form.
For Anna, breaking free from the limits and dogmas of academia is an important evolutionary process as an artist. She works quickly, spontaneously, and intuitively, and her paintings are an expression of her inner work on her own fears of "mistakes" and imperfection. The acceptance of imperfection also manifests the diversity of life, which Anna celebrates through her art.
Anna's medium of choice is acrylic, with its fluidity and quick-drying properties. This allows her to follow the flow and let go of the animal and primitive within herself, creating a unique harmony on canvas. Each new canvas becomes a therapeutic session for Anna, where she explores the Joy of life in its beautiful and aesthetic manifestation.
When she's not in her studio, Anna can be found at the gym with a barbell on her shoulders or figure skating at the icerink. Her dedication to physical fitness and movement is reflected in her art, which is characterized by a sense of fluidity and spontaneity... Ultimately, Anna aims to create art that brings joy and beauty to your place.
STUDIO
​Welcome to my garage art studio! This is a cozy corner of creativity, my parallel universe located in the garage just steps away from home. I don't even have time to drink coffee on the way to work! And coffee is essential for me since, being a "night owl," I often work during the night hours. My studio is not very large and has few windows, but it has everything necessary for creative work. In this cozy space, I spend many hours every day experimenting with colours and creating new paintings. There is always the smell of paint and coffee and music playing here. My little helpers - live plants - also create a special atmosphere here. In my studio, I find inspiration and creative freedom.
WHAT MY ART IS ABOUT
My research as an artist is about joy in its visual aesthetic manifestation. I am interested in the beauty and courage of the living being, the positive aspect of the life experience. I portray life at its best, in its dynamics, in the rush of happiness, in the desire to breathe, shine, and move. I create my works as embodiments, images of joyful moments. I hope they become a refreshing experience for the viewer, a reason to lift one's spirits. After all, life offers enough sadness anyway. As an artist I try to remind myself and my viewers that life is not all frustration and grief. I look to the philosophical tradition of the eternal return to the joy and pleasure of life: the ancient Stoics, Henri Bergson and his 'joie de Vivre are my inspirations. Thanks to philosophy, we know that being alive and happy creates a particular, complex and often underestimated art form. Painting for me is a dance of Joy, an aesthetic expression impulse of life. Besides, in my practice I find pleasure of expressing myself. The analog of painting and music is close to me: the improvised merging of the canvas texture and paint texture is like a jazz improvisation, full of surprises and aesthetic discoveries. It is this experience that becomes the medium that connects the artist and the viewer. Since I have an academic background, which is dogmatic and strict, breaking the rules becomes a kind of challenge for me. Each canvas is a new little experiment, a new struggle with boundaries. The so-called "imperfections" manifest the diversity of life, its colorfulness and richness, its capacity to change the whole world. I, therefore, seek to develop, to rock these "imperfections". It's an important evolutionary process for me as an artist. I work in an expressionist way, quickly, spontaneously, and intuitively - to create the effects of movement. My material is acrylic with its light and fluid texture which allows me to work without thinking, and without trying to control each stroke. It is this lack of control and spontaneity which gives life to the forms I paint. The process of painting for me, as well as the whole notion of art, is linked to the philosophy of Henri Bergson, a true "philosopher of joy". In his theoretical constructions, intuition plays a key role as the only means to bring back the original flexibility of our learning which has been reduced to rigid, outdated methods. Art can be the engine for this kind of learning, the source of radically new discoveries.