When did you realize you wanted to become an artist? Is there a story behind it?

I just really wanted to paint. To paint like Levitan and Deyneka. Like Marquet and Turner. Sometimes in the summer time I went to the Chudskoye lake to visit relatives. My grandmother’s brother was an artist. He telling me about Raphael and showed art albums. Almost every
morning, like Levitan, he went to the plein air in the forest.

For those unfamiliar with your work, what are your main influences and how do you approach your subject matter and colour palette?

Nowadays, I am greatly influenced by contemporary artists in social media and their creative minds and beautiful souls. So many emotions, feelings and others lifes around us. If we want, we can know about each other almost everything. Or nothing, suddenly. And that, too so amazingly influence at art process. And my whole artistic process, including the subject and artistic means of expression, has an emotional origin .I am just woman-artist – today I feel my world like black with orange and blue. Tomorrow… maybe too)

What inspires you to paint? What are the things which catch your attention? Why is the night the most productive part of the day for you?

Usually I am inspired by color, light and composition. I love experimenting with watercolour technic like painting technics. I like to interact with the surrounding space, to see and recognize in it what turns on the light in me and makes me happier. Weird, random or on the contrary, so usual objects or situations – this is my landscape. I see that reality in realistic style. But I try to leave on paper only what I feel and love to see.. and nightpleinair – the best conditions for this! Completely different colors. At night they are not what they seem during the day. Chamber, personal light..personal lonely space. What I see in every moment when I stop to paint at night – magic.

To what extent does the pandemic influence your depiction of art? Does it generate new inspiration?

The 2020 pandemic has drawn our attention to ourselves and to each other within us. Longing, I looked for ways to be closer to each other. Finding us where we have never been – inside our own small world, several tens of meters in size. Memories. Time for reflection. Painting from the window and under the table. Every day and every night. Yes, these are the works that might not have been. And now that’s all we have. And this is priceless to me.

How do you feel about being involved in an online residency program? How important is to stay connected with the international art community?

This is my first time participating in the residence. And I really like this online project. Apart from the fact that such projects are a great idea for the art community around the world today, online residency is an opportunity for fantastic collaborations between creative people in
incredible conditions. We can see each other’s artworks and be inspired, we can write to each other and read in a few seconds.. We have a video calls. We can talk at the same time and create ideas. These are still necessary opportunities for me, both as an artist and as a human.

What are your thoughts about the theme ‘artist on standby’? Tell us a bit more
about your project…

During the residence, we here in Belgrade, have already exchanged thoughts on how to understand and research the theme of the residence – “Artist on Standby”. We have a very interesting community here!

While working on the theme of the residence, I thought about last spring and what I did then. Several important images for me and ideas that I continued in this residence. As always, I work in the plein air, but with different restrictions. I came up with technical and thematic restrictions for working process (night plein air, painting with limited color palette, series), which refer to thoughts about boundaries, about anticipation and dialogue between space, time and the artist. I also turned to music, which has names and words, and to music, which only has music of music.

What do you want to achieve before things return to normal? Any future plans/projects?

This online residency has been a powerful creative challenge for me! And also a language and communication test. I would like to be as productive and difficult to work in a residence in real space and unusual cultural conditions.