The influence of Scandinavia and Russia in the watercolour paintings of Marina Preobrazhenskaya

My name is Marina Preobrazhenskaya.

I was born in the Soviet Union, grew up in Russia and live in Sweden now. My art journey started at a young age at school. During different phases of my life, I turned to other directions, but eventually, I was brought back to art again. I have worked as a radio-journalist, an administrator, an illustrator and finally as an artist.

I used to sketch during my childhood and sometimes even participated in “plein air painting” with my friend who studied art more seriously. I wasn’t sure of my artistic preferences at that time. I was also interested in foreign languages and literature, which led me to do the Master’s Degree at the Faculty of Journalism at Moscow University.  During my years at the university, I also worked as a radio-journalist, continued my linguistic studies and even got a scholarship from the Swedish Institute. I moved to Sweden as an exchange student and applied my linguistic studies on an art course. That period gave me the possibility to discover different art techniques from sculpture to engraving.

The next years of my life were filled with journalism in Russia and Sweden. I was lucky to participate in one popular science project where I combined working as a journalist and an illustrator. At that time, I consciously started to work with visual context.

During my work, I met a wonderful Lithuanian artist Irina Novocrescionova. I was fascinated by her watercolours. Her art touched something deep in my soul and transformed my views about contemporary watercolour paintings. We became friends and the artist helped and inspired me to organize my first exhibition in Karlskrona city in the south of Sweden. At that time, I officially started my art career.

Five years were complemented with design studies at Malmö University. I participated in more than twenty exhibitions in the south of Sweden, my paintings are on display in private collections in France, Austria, the USA, Russia and Sweden. Watercolour is my speciality when painting, but I also work with pastel crayons, digital illustration and graphic design. Watercolours have a special place in my heart because of their unpredictability. The pigments behave differently from time to time and live an independent life. Artists can never make an identical copy of their own paintings.  They try to study, steer and cooperate with this material, but most of the best art pieces contain something original which creates a special charm for every single painting. Watercolours do not allow for mistakes; all defects can only be integrated into the painting or speak for themselves. The watercolour paper absorbs pigment very fast and rejects big corrections. All these factors make painting challenging and exciting.

My paintings usually reflect different changes in the environment around us. Light and water reflections are always the main theme of my artwork. Most of my paintings were created in Sweden and present Nordic themes with restrained colours, but unlike Swedish artists, I try to give some Russian touches to that ascetic impression.

My contacts: [email protected]
Gallery on Instagram or Facebook: Marinas Akvarell
https://www.instagram.com/marinasakvarell/
https://www.facebook.com/Marinas-Akvarell-248571765282713/

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