The artist on display at Winkler Arts and Culture this month hopes guests to the gallery will take a moment to take a deep breath and truly contemplate the art before them.
Elena Derksen’s paintings are on display at Winkler Arts and Culture in her The Nature of Stillness exhibition, which runs Feb. 19 to March 28
Elena Derksen’s The Nature of Stillness opens at the Park St. gallery this Thursday and will be on display through to March 28.
“It’s a moment in time that I try to capture in every painting,” Derksen shares. “And I hope for people to experience that when they look at it—that they can just enjoy the moment and just relax and look and consider what the painting is saying to them.”
One series of pieces Derksen is excited to share depicts a variety of different kinds of flowers. They serve as an ode to her love of plants—an interest inspired by her grandmother’s beautiful garden.
“I was always in awe when we were going to visit my grandma. She had this wild backyard with so many flowers. I think that’s where my love for plants came from,” Derksen says. “So I have a whole series of glass vases where the flowers are very fragile, but there is so much beauty there as well.”
Art has been a part of Derksen’s life since childhood, though she’s thrown herself into it more fully in recent years.
“I remember the first time I wanted to do really well in painting was when I was quite little,” she recalls of growing up in Kazakhstan. “One of my friends was drawing fairy tale princesses and she was so good at it. I wanted to be able to paint that well.
“So over the years I did a little bit, I taught myself, tried different things. But life is busy, and you don’t always listen to what you want until you’re older and have a little more time … I only decided to be more professional about it two years ago.”
She’s committed herself wholeheartedly into what she hopes will be a new career for her, completing online studies at the Milan Art Institute last year. The program gave her the opportunity to refine her voice and technique as an artist.
“I really developed my own style,” Derksen shares. “It’s not just something that somebody taught me. I didn’t have a teacher guiding my hand. I had to do all the work by myself and express what I think is beautiful on a canvas.”
She describes her style as a form of abstract realism. Her backgrounds are often a kaleidoscope of colours and shapes that are meant to highlight each piece’s subject, be it an animal, landscape, or floral display.
Earlier phases of a piece will see her piecing it all together with inks and acrylics, but her finished work is always in oil.
“I just love how rich it is,” she says of the medium. “Oil is made from natural pigments, so it makes it all so much more alive.”
Derksen has had individual pieces on display in larger exhibitions and art festivals over the past year, and has committed to sharing more and more of her work online through her website (elenaderksen.art) and social media pages, but this will be her first solo show at the Winkler gallery.
In addition to her floral pieces, she’ll also be sharing a collection of landscapes inspired by her family’s trip to Tuscany, as well as a few other works, including a few portraits, that showcase her journey as an artist.
“To kind of show the progression of it all,” she says, noting that never-ending opportunity to learn and grow as an artist is a feeling like no other. “There is always progression; it doesn’t matter how many years you paint. And I think that’s what makes it so fun to paint.
“As you learn more and more fundamentals, you develop your style, which starts to show in every painting, and you start to see more of yourself in there as you go along.”
The show has its opening reception with Derksen in attendance this Thursday, Feb. 19, at 7 p.m. All are welcome to attend.
