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FASO Collector Recommends: Elena Degenhardt
Biography
“A moment; a movement; a mood. In Elena’s art, the ephemeral is made permanent ... there is no escaping the emotion that crashing waves and stolen glances can instil in us when laying eyes on one of her creations.” - Iggy Fenech, writer and editor.
“Drawing on her profound connection to the sea, Elena Degenhardt creates watery images charged with emotional truths.” - Christine Proskow (from the article “Plunging Into The Depths”, Pastel Journal, Winter 2023)
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Born in West Siberia, Elena Degenhardt is an internationally acclaimed German artist, living in the South of France. She works mostly from her studio on the Mediterranean coast in Cannes, France, but also from her studio in the harbour village of Greetsiel, at the North Sea coast of Germany. She often paints en plein air, out by the sea, both locally and on her travels. Elena is an all-year-round open sea swimmer.
Master Pastellist with the International Association of Pastel Societies and Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America, Elena is best known for her immersive waterscapes, emotionally charged underwater figurative works and evocative portraits.
Her application of pastel and charcoal - in a rare for these dry mediums wet-on-wet technique, with intensive mark making, on unusual painting surfaces (including product packaging) - together with the emotional impact of her work have brought her international recognition and multiple awards.
Classically trained in art in her teens, Elena went on to do two university degrees in philology and linguistics and had a successful international career in literary research, teaching and translating for more than a decade before becoming a full-time artist in 2017.
Between 2015 and 2018, she learnt pastel painting under British artist Jo Hall, Hon. member and Past President of the SGFA (UK national drawing society), in England, took masterclass in portraiture with renowned Irish portrait painter Gareth Reid and attended a year long class in life figure drawing with Maltese artist and printmaker Jesmond Vassallo at the Malta Society of Arts in Valletta.
She has shown her work extensively in curated, invitational and juried gallery and museum shows, including Mall Galleries in London, UK (with the Royal Society of Marine Artists, Pastel Society UK and Society of Fine Graphic Art); Grand Palais, Paris; Salmagundi Club and The National Arts Club in NYC; The Atkinson Museum Southport, UK (Ruth Borchard Self Portrait Prize Finalists Exhibition); Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art, USA; Lian Yiqing Pastel Painting Art Museum, China; SolArt Gallery Dublin, Ireland; Abend Gallery, Denver, USA; and Museum Ostwall at Dortmunder U, Germany.
Elena’s work has been featured in the the major art publications, including Fine Art Connoisseur, PleinAir Magazine, American Art Collector, Pastel Journal (USA), Artists & Illustrators (UK), Beautiful Bizarre Magazine (Australia), PoetsArtists publications and Pratique des Arts (France). It is part of the Lunar Codex project, making her one of the first women artists whose art is being archived on the lunar surface, and of private collections throughout Europe, USA, Canada, UK and Australia, including that of world-renowned Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja and notable Magazu Collection.
Elena’s multicultural background and frequent relocations, both in childhood and as an adult, have influenced the choice of themes she explores in her art: lost (and found) identities, bonds and boundaries, fragility of life and fears, memory and time. Time was part of her literary research as a philologist and continues to be the main theme in her art.
Elena considers herself a realist with an impressionistic touch, mixing in abstract elements in her latest work. Painting en plein air and from life as well as hand drawing are at the root of her working practice.
Artist statement:
“Painting is a deeply personal and reflective process for me. This explains my love of soft pastels - they create no barrier between me and an artwork. I express a lot through painting process itself, through the way I apply pastels - from a featherlight touch to the expressive mark making. A lot happens on a subconscious level. Pastels allow me to immediately translate an emotion into a visual image.”
“I paint en plein air, on location, and from life, but also from imagination and my knowledge of a painting subject, using my sketches, colour studies and my own photography as a memory support. As most of my work includes the sea, I often paint on the shore, in all weather conditions, and swim all year round. I must feel the sea, taste it, breathe it in, carry it within me to be able to work in the studio, no matter if I actually work on a sea-related project or not.”
Learn More About Elena Degenhardt
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