They say that only we Muscovites have such a keen interest in weather forecasting. We are ready to watch the long News on television only so that at the end of them the announcer confirms that the winter is not over yet. And although there is nothing new in this, we understand that this is the most truthful information.

My eighty-year-old mother every morning asks about the weather: “What did they promise today?” And I reply: “The same as yesterday”… The same as yesterday and tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow and even in a week… “Cloudy with clarifications.. Mostly rain with snow…. "- relevant in November and February, and even in April..

But spring still comes - not following, but contrary to weather forecasts. You go out in February to the street - on which there is another snow, you draw in cold, moist air with your nose and smile…. You feel - spring is already here… She gives a secret sign flashing the end of the distant house with pink light. Or quickly chirping about himself hiding in the bushes of a titmouse. The air changes from her secret presence - it becomes cleaner transparent, as if the whole landscape, like window glass, was washed with water and wiped with old newspapers…

I really love this time.. The appearance of the sun is more expensive than a cloudy day. Spring - like a smile, flashed and no… for a long laugh - the cheeks will hurt!

Traveling to warm places, I am glad, surprised, but I don’t know what and how to draw…. The sky is too blue, the sand is too yellow, the flowers are too pink… Silver-gray is more precious to me…

“It’s beautiful, but somehow sad”…. - often the unlucky customers often tell me. I’m not upset. Because I understand: to write as Matisse or Bonnard, it’s necessary, for starters, at least to move to France.. And here, at home - rather Surikovsky’s flavor… “Menshchikov in Berezovo” - and this is not the limit….

Light and color shine through rather than shine.

Realism - this is how I answer questions about my work. And it is true. But realism in Russia has a special property. The visible reality is too deceptive, full of random details… it is rather a screen behind which the Main is hidden.

Everything is relative… Even the correct weather forecast…

Elena Utenkova
february 2017

Therefore, silver-gray prevails in Russian painting. With all the subtlest modulations…

In Russia, color and light shine through rather than shine. The appearance of the sun is the more expensive the cloudy day.

Elena Utenkova. In the train. 2013. Pastel paper