Courtyard Castle du Rivau Painting

A mixture of modernly interpreted impressionism and realism, this is the best way to describe the style of Natalia Simonenko's paintings. Intensive, emotional colors and the representation of light and air lay the foundation for special moods. The works of the Russian artist, who commutes between St. Petersburg and Stuttgart, are internationally recognized and have already been shown in Moscow, Los Angeles, Paris and London. Natalia Simonenko, who completed her training at the renowned Ilya Repin Academy of Art in St. Petersburg, gives us a comprehensive insight into her works, whose roots lie in classical painting. Irrespective of the fashions of the art market, Natalia Simonenko is committed to a realism that is close to the light and air painting of Impressionism. Although in some of her paintings they partially push the border to abstraction, the representational always remains. A picture should tell something and not just be a beautiful color surface. Therefore it is necessary to bring realistic elements into the picture, the artist emphasizes. My goal, she says, is to create an intensive pictorial atmosphere with a mixture of realistic genre painting and impressionistic painting techniques. The strong expressive colors of the paintings of both the depictions of persons and the landscape paintings correspond to the temperament of the spirited painter and translate her emphatic perception of the world directly into colors. "The colors are the acoustic tones that address the feeling to the same extent, sometimes perhaps even more intensely," says the artist, who is inspired by music. Natalia Simonenko devotes herself to the genres of portrait, still life and landscape painting. She discovers the themes for these on her travels, when visiting the circus and theatre or working with a model. Natalia Simonenkos philosophical approach is "For me, the beauty of this world comes first. This is what I want to show in my paintings."