Ellada Saridi

I was born in Tbilisi (Georgia) and lived in Moscow (Russia). In the early 2000s I came to Japan, where I spent about 10 years studying Japanese art, particularly, sumi-e ink painting. This style, rooted in Zen Buddhism, fascinated me with its expressive lines and abundance of empty space.
It took me years to learn how to express my inner life energy with a brush. Inks applied to rice paper cannot be corrected. It means that a single mistake destroys the whole picture, and you have to start from scratch.
I do not follow classical sumi-e. Instead, I combine sumi-e with Western art to adapt the Eastern spirit for the Western viewer. My main themes are flowers, birds and landscapes. I put on paper their images created in my imagination.
I make my paintings using authentic Japanese and Chinese materials and tools, such as rice paper, (Xuan, Gasenshi, Washi mulberry paper), Japanese black ink, Japanese watercolor (gansai), and special long-haired brushes. I strive to show the beauty of ink shades, the visual effects of its spreading on the paper and create a "picture of the heart" that felt like poetry.

Ella Saridi, creative pseudonym Seirei 星麗 – “beautiful star”
2002-2005 ink painting courses with Japanese artist Kuyama Kazue 久山 一枝, who experiments with new techniques, Asaka, Japan
2010 workshops classes with Chinese ink painter Ou Suko 王子江, Moscow, Russia
2015 – 2019 studied oil painting in SLAC Academy, Leuven, Belgium
2020 - online classes with Korean artist Sungsook Setton
Currently, I am taking online course on brush painting with Japanese artist Kaichiro Negishi 根岸嘉一郎

Collective Expositions
2010 «The Magic of Water and Ink» in the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation
2011 «Oginoshima and its surroundings», Niigata Oginoshima, Japan
2011 International Friendship Association (KIFA）Kodaira, Tokyo, Japan
2011 The 37th All Japan Suibokuga-Art Association Annual Exhibition, Tokyo National Arts Center, Japan
2012 The 39th All Japan Suibokuga-Art Association Annual Exhibition Tokyo, National Arts Center, Japan Special Award of the annual exhibition of the Japan Society of Arts Suibokuga
2012 «Flowers and Art» Academy of Fine Arts (Saint - Petersburg State Academic Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture), Russia
2016 «Fuzei Nihon No Bi» (風情 日本 のび), Central Artist's House, Moscow, Russia
2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 SLAC Academy, Leuven, Belgium
2021 ‘The magic of Japanese painting. Seasons' Gallery Antique Center, Moscow, Russia