Hello!
MY NAME IS YULIA
Russian soul, Italian name, atelier in France, working in English, settled in Switzerland
‘Everything you can imagine is real’. Pablo Picasso
After 20 years of a successful career in IT and Finance, getting tired of coding, figures and reports, I discovered the freedom and therapy of Art.
The last time I did an oblique cat drawing back at primary school… mmm *** years ago, it was highly criticized by our classic teacher. Those classes somehow turned me away and made me believe that both my arms were left-handed and growing in the wrong direction. However, I loved staring for hours at the pictures from a variety of art magazines belonging to my architect-mom… There was another world in there, so different, so mystical to my Soviet surroundings.
At the same time I spent a few years taming the piano and going through the Russian classic books. Tolstoy, Turgenev, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and many other genius compatriots developed my emotion of a “soul in pain”, specific and well known for Russians. I even played with words myself and created a few poems and novels back in time.
Well years later, by chance of my fate, after surviving through the tough times of perestroika and deficit, misery and hunger, ambitious and hard work, I found myself in the miraculous region of the Alps, integrating into Swiss and French cultures, breathing in the fresh mountain air. It was there, that I realized my need to express everything that has been stacked and packed inside for too long, I have a beautiful opportunity to expose and reveal.
In one year I created over one hundred art works in different styles and techniques. I followed a few online courses and master classes in person with different schools and well-known artists in St Petersburg, Moscow, Switzerland, Italy and France. I went for art-travel vacations at Crete and Montenegro, and that was the most beautiful time I ever had amongst passionate and experienced art lovers. Now I go to visit every possible museum or exhibition around to find inspiration and learn from the masters. I tried aquarelle and drawing, classical multilayers and “alla prima”, oil and acrylic, grattage and blinking interior. Over the past few months however, I developed the look of my own style and vision. My favorite technique for now is a palette knife, although I keep learning and trying all trends and instruments.
I enjoy volume and movement, provocative brightness and contrasts. Yes, my drawing is not academic and it shouldn’t be because still life is actually alive and a boat is following the wind and even the sunshine is shivering and jingling. Objects have no precise shape because they are being born and changing, communicating, dying and dissolving into nature. This life cycle is continuous and infinite.
I do not paint objects. For me the idea of painting art is not to copy colors, shapes and shadows, as these tasks have already been tackled by photography. I express my dreams, my mood, my interpretations and fantasies on the subject, its character, as I would like to see it. To me, painting is a combination of physical practices such as yoga or qigong and a visual meditation, it's like a shamanic dance where every hand movement is intuitive and subordinate to a subconscious rhythm, thoughts are dissolved in space, and only emotions are splashed on the canvas, solidifying in color and texture.
I am not greedy about paints and I put them on the canvas as if I were preparing a birthday cake, assembling layers one after the other: here is a nut biscuit, and after is a layer of jam, and some sour cream on top, decorated with marshmallows and a few accents of pickled cherries, so that the picture turned out delicious to a viewer, so that one would like to try and savor every color, layer, shadow, movement and discover what is hidden between the strokes, how the colors mix or flow over each other, how it turns and where it leads, where it’s blurred and ran off the edge ...
I love bright and contrasting colors, because they decorate everyday life, give a festive feeling, joy and anticipation of a miracle coming. What do we need in our daily serious but fussy lives more than a little miracle? I love abstract shapes because they stimulate the imagination and give space for each viewer to complete an image through their personal experience and fantasy. I love rich textures and factures, because it is so contemporary and expands the space for freedom and creativity.
I am mostly inspired by the techniques of Van Gogh and Nicolas de Stael, by the imagination of Chagall and Lewis Carroll, interpretations of Monet and Johannes Brahms, by the colors of Matisse and Afremov, and by the symbolism of Rothko and Picasso.
For now, I continue working part time for a large international company, configuring an ERP for Finance and Logistics, coordinating a team of IT consultants, redesigning business procedures and communicating with financial managers of world-famous brands, it makes a good training for my brain cells and hard skills…
But in my secret part of life and the world of fantasy I express myself in a way I feel, I put my dreams on the canvas and I let them come true, through the vivant colors.
I will be happy if my impressions, feelings and fantasies resulting in my art works could be appealing to your heart and experience, bring some bright colors into your life, may be interesting or please you to have them around.
In the area of my current interests and studies is also marketing, promotions and sales as applied to the domain of Art. In the future, selling my art works and building connections with other artists and associations I hope to invest some income in charities helping out children in difficult situations.