Svetlana Malakhova Automatic translate

An exhibition of works by the talented artist Svetlana Malakhova has just opened in Moscow. We talked with Svetlana about her creative secrets.

Details about the exhibition (Moscow, 2018) here: Svetlana Malakhova’s exhibition “My Solo at the Factory”

Page of Svetlana on Galeriks: svetlanaarticon.in.gallerix.ru

1. How did your creative career begin? Someone in childhood contributed or is this an independent decision?

- My creative career began with the drawing of what is now called the fashionable word “fashion illustration”. We met with friends after school and drew models on ordinary notebook sheets. The faces of my models were the funniest. I was very upset then, but deep down I knew that someday my portraits would have the ability to attract the viewer and give him my energy.

2. Now your work traces a recognizable style, how long did you have to work to achieve this?

- Oddly enough, but I never tried to find my style. For me it’s like an actor playing the same role all the time. Each painting, each portrait is a separate life, a separate story, and it is impossible for me to look at two different people or two different landscapes the same way, creating works in the “same style” or “in my own style” as is commonly believed.

Therefore, I paint one picture using a small brush, the second I will paint using only the flames, and in the third I will take a trowel (trowel).

In my works I use a lot of unusual things, down to rags. They are very convenient to apply the first layers and textures of landscapes.

You take some things from your teachers, but something comes to you in the process of experience.

3. A lot of exhibitions with your participation. Do you like contact with the viewer or watch “from behind the scenes”? Besides the obvious things that exhibitions give?

- I love contact with the audience, these are such powerful impressions and emotions! How they look at your paintings, what they say, where they stop longer. To ask the viewer what they liked more, what works were remembered, all this is surprising and exciting.

I would be a cook, probably I would also go out to visitors to see how your creations are evaluated. But, such a desire does not come immediately of course, at first there is also a feeling of slight embarrassment and embarrassment, insecurity, for then it is as if you are gaining armor.

Exhibitions provide multifaceted benefits and this is not only the sale of works. Firstly, it is psychological confidence and the feeling that with each exhibition you will rise higher and higher in your achievements. Secondly, these are opinions and dialogue with the viewer. You always meet new people at exhibitions and this can all turn into interesting projects. And finally, the level of adrenaline that is at the time of opening the exhibition, the emotions that you experience while waiting for the guests, this will not give any drink, no other stimulant will give these feelings, because these are yours, real emotions!

4. In your work there are many portraits of people. Who are they? Where do the plots come from?

- It so happened that throughout my studies, my main and favorite topic was man.

We are truly unique in its own way and each of us is unique in its own way. The artist is able to see this exclusivity and convey it on canvas. Transfer the energy that comes from a person, adding another particle of himself and his energy to it, and then an explosion occurs and the portrait lives on. It attracts people and saturates them with positive emotions and energy.

For my work, and they are mostly all with people, I take stories from life. I draw sketches in restaurants and cafes, in the dentist’s office, at the airport. And then from this I collect a picture.

I can just take pictures. For example, the Moulin Rouge series - I write it from a photo. The hall was very dark and I threw something abstractly during the performance, as if consolidating my emotions and impressions. And then I work on a photo, but with lively and real impressions.

Sketches and sketches, by the way, can also be an excellent interior decoration, for example, the American owners of restaurants and cafes where I painted often bought these drawings and then decorated them with the interior of their own establishments. My opinion is that painting and drawings make any interior unique, and whatever the design, art will definitely breathe life into it and the exceptional features of your space.

5. What is your opinion, the ability to write like this comes as a result of training, labor and investment, or is given to a person from birth in the form of talent?

- Regarding talent and work: I am sure that along with the desire to do something, abilities are given for this. But nobody canceled the rule of 10,000 hours. The ability to write and draw is given by labor, here it is different in any way.

You know, I never thought about such a formulation of the question: “We will not teach you something here, but you yourself will learn what - you will get the answer.” These were the words of my drawing teacher, Professor Mogilevtsev. And this is true, if you have a true desire to learn something, then you will learn in a short time, and if you don’t have a desire, then at least 4, at least 6, at least 10 years, no one will teach you anything.

6. What achievement of you, as an artist, seems to you sufficient to say “now I have achieved everything I wanted”? If it is, of course, there is.

- The discipline is incredibly important, the artist must set the working day for himself, the goal and the amount of work, and not be distracted by anything. To see only the global goal and go to it, and then everything will work out.

And yet, Svetlana has her own style. He is not in technology, but more in the plot, in something that is hidden from view, but is present between the lines. Even in her portraits there is a feeling that this is a successfully caught moment from life, and not something artificially invented and painstakingly built. Right?

Mikhail Vesensky