Ukrainian talented painter Inna Pantelemonova is an example of how national roots are reflected in modern art and are in harmony with innovative and experimental approach without running into classic folklorism. Pantelemonova was born in Odesa but she often travels to the Carpathians and the Crimea, she likes to stay in the province and she brings sketches from every place she visits. She graduated from the National Academy of Art and Architecture, is a member of Artists’ Union of Ukraine, and currently resides in Kyiv. Her paintings from the abstract series presented at the Artosfera Art Festival are a vivid example of a dialogue between the national motifs of Ukrainian ornaments and the expressive and abstract search of the artist. Pantelemonova is widely known as an author of genre paintings and landscapes; sometimes she works with children’s drawings and paintings in naive style. She is an active participant of national and international festivals, art workshops, and outdoor painting. Anyone who has a passion for bright and real painting can see the works of the artist at vernissages in Kyiv, some of her paintings are presented in collections of the Ukrainian Home and Ukrainian Cultural Foundation, in Zaporizhia Gallery Art L, Olha Bohomolets’s Kairos Art Hall, and many other galleries, private collections in Ukraine and abroad. Today Inna PANTELEMONOVA will tell The Day about her artistic work.
Your work is closely connected with your native land. What does national theme mean for you as a painter?
“First of all, I always try to listen to my own soul and in recent years I’ve been thinking a lot about my childhood – about things that happened to me back then and about something secret and childish that lives in me. I have spent my entire childhood in a private home in rural atmosphere. My grandmother and grandfather were born in Vinnytsia oblast. I often came to visit them and that is why the theme of rural Ukraine is very close to me. But with all this, it is very important for me to still be a modern artist that is why I search for new approaches, experiment with oil painting, pastel, watercolor painting, I look for new ways of conveying expression. I do not want to make some sort of an illustration to life – I want to show the inner world of a modern Ukrainian.”
Your paintings – scenes and landscapes present to the audience the world that “keeps balance” between realism and fairytale spirit.
“That’s right, in my work all depends on what goal I set for myself. When I see a beautiful view I want to paint it from nature and when I see an urban landscape I already perceive it as a motive and try to convey it through my own fairytale vision. For example, if it is a street with houses somewhere in the Carpathian Mountains, I look at it as at some sort of idea.
“Last fall I had a very interesting ‘jeeping’ open-air session. It was sponsored by the SUV Company. We lived near Alushta in the Crimea. The group included different artists, both realists and abstractionists. We would go to some distant places where it is pretty hard to get. I am so thankful for this trip because after it I have created a couple of really interesting works. We lived in small houses, always came home late, and after every trip I would splash all my impressions on the canvas. This is how I created my favorite painting Beautiful Demerdzhi. When we climbed that mountain despite the wind, everything around us was colored in beautiful red-orange and yellow-green. Fall is always beautiful in the Crimea. At the end we had a final exhibit, where we presented our paintings on natural walls, like bushes and trees. It all looked very original.”
Could you please tell us about the paintings that you presented to the public at the exhibit “Spring Temptation,” which was held in April in Kyiv.
“The theme of spring is very intimate for me: great mystery is taking place in nature at this time of year. Every year we have a great opportunity to enjoy with a thrill a miracle of all living objects’ rebirth, a new breath of life. At the exhibition I presented paintings that illustrate this state of mind in some way. The painting Beautiful Demerdzhi perfectly conveys the mood of being in harmony with life and spring state of mind. Easter is dedicated to the great Christian holiday, when people who cleared themselves during fasting, passing another milestone of their lives, get an opportunity to refresh just like it happens with nature in spring and then they can look at life with a new clear vision. In the painting Ultramarine Dreams we see a warm evening in May. It is a symbolic composition with elements of surrealism. There is a black parrot in the picture – partly an element of reality and partly that of a dream, but only the bird sleeping in the picture knows that. Spring Bliss is my attempt to convey the feeling of peacefulness and tranquility of a soul characteristic of a loved and loving woman. The painting called Spring Inside Her is a philosophical work. I admire older people who after going a long and difficult way remain wise, all things notwithstanding, bright, grateful for life, and radiate grace and sincere inner light, which attracts others like butterflies. Spring Inside Her is a state of mind which every person should seek and the sooner they reach it, the happier they will be.”
