Fixative or NO Fixative?
In most cases, I don't use any fixative but sometimes I do, for example, when I work quite thickly with pastel marks. In this case, I might only spray these particular areas.
About:
Born in Russia, grown up in East Siberia, Elena spent her early years in Germany and Latvia and moved to Germany in 2003.
Graduated from Irkutsk Regional Youth Art School in Russia with a certificate of excellence where she received classical art training, she went on to do two Master degrees in languages and literatures, and then to work as a teacher and translator for 15 years.
It was while living in England in 2014 that Elena joined a local art society and started exhibiting with them. Having won the society’s Annual Award, Elena took time out from teaching and spent a year attending art classes at Norden Farm Centre for the Arts in Maidenhead, UK. There, she had her first pastel classes with the British artist Jo Hall, SGFA.
In 2015, Elena and her family moved to Vienna, Austria, where she continued finding her way back to art. Since 2017, Elena has been a full-time artist. Having moved to Malta in 2017, she attended the portrait masterclass with British artist Gareth Reid and life drawing classes with Maltese artist and printmaker Jesmond Vassallo.
In 2019, Elena and her family moved back to Germany where she is currently living and working. Elena’s multicultural and multilingual experience has influenced her artistic choice of themes, such as lost identities, displacement, human fears, memory and time.
Elena is a Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America, Member of the Pastel Guild of Europe and PoetsArtists (USA). Her work has been shown internationally, in curated and juried shows with the PoetsArtists (USA), The Royal Society of Marine Artists at Mall Galleries, The Society of Graphic Fine Art, London, UK; at Salon des Beaux Arts 2019, Carousel du Louvre, Paris; The South West Academy of Fine and Applied Arts, Exeter Castle, UK; Pastel d’Opale 2020, France; The International Association of Pastel Societies (IAPS) and The Malta Society of Arts.
She has won several awards including ‘Outstanding Pastel’ awards in the international painting competition BoldBrush (USA).
Her work has been published in Leonardo Art Guide 2020 (Spain), PoetsArtists Magazine (USA), Pratique Des Arts (France), Artists & Illustrators Magazine (UK) and in Times of Malta.
Elena is represented by Christine X Art Gallery, Malta. Her artwork is available through 33 Contemporary Gallery on Artsy, Abend Gallery (USA), The Tonic Gallery (UK) and Galerie Farbenspiel (Vienna, Austria).
Blogs by Elena Degenhardt
Me And My 5 – Unison Colour Associate Artist Elena Degenhardt
In this series I have invited some of Unison Colour's very talented Associate Artists to choose 5 of their pieces and then to write a little about them and how the pieces relate to them as artists.
Pastel Dust for Water Foam
This is my first blog for Unison Colour as an Associate Artist and I’m very excited to be sharing some of my pastel painting techniques and inspiration behind my work with you!