Marina Kovalkova

Your artist statement describes painting as “flight and absolute freedom.” Can you tell us about the first time you felt this sense of freedom while creating?

For the first time I felt the painting process like a flight and freedom on the plain air on Garda lake in Italy. The beauty of that place, where everything all the elements are in harmony and all nature is full of beauty, perfection and peace. It was in that exactly place I felt the force of the willing and dreams and realized everything is possible and all the barriers are mostly in our head. And I was confirmed in this feeling every time I took a brush or a palette knife and made my first strokes on a white canvas. Painting for me is a freedom because starting to paint on the white canvas you are absolutely free to fill this snow-white space with everything you want. You are  limited only by your own  feeling, imagination and mood. And, of course, when you create your own worlds, you rise above the physical world, and that’s why painting feels like flying to me.

The first people who helped me feel and understand this were Sveta and Federico Perotti, who were my first teachers in Italy.

Oil painting is clearly your favorite medium. What makes oil unique for you compared to other materials you’ve worked with?

By using different materials, you can achieve various effects, set accents and dominants, add texture, enhance and emphasize, and make your paintings multi-layered. I often experiment with different materials, but oil paints remain my favorite because I believe they are the most vital, vibrant and versatile. I love the thick, impasto-like quality of oil paints, which allows me to create a rich and expressive visual experience.

Marina Kovalkova | Lovi Blesnu

You often use a palette knife and even your fingers in your process. How does this tactile connection with paint influence the emotions in your work?

Just like using different art materials, using different paint application tools allows to achieve different effects and make the painting more complex. I often use different-shaped palette knives when working on a painting. Grigory Kuznetsov who is my main teacher is the great Master of palette knife and the main techniques and methods of use I tried to learn from him. Palette knife is one of the best painting instruments if a painter needs to reach synthesis or generalization, which are so important in the process of reality transformation to the unique art works. Besides, fingers, as you have already quite correctly noted, could help to get some interesting fleur visual effects, and rise tactile bridge to connect two universes – the reality and the new art world that appears on the canvas under the fingers movements.

Many of your works radiate bright colors and a sense of movement. Do you see your paintings as reflections of inner states, or as independent worlds of their own?

In a way, it’s both. The serie of my works “Baltic” is absolutely independent universe, where the heros, scenes and plots came from nowhere. The sailor in “LOVI BLESNU” work appeared suddenly and after finishing. It was as if he had just stepped off a ship after a round-the-world voyage and immediately stepped into my work at the very last moment, when I thought the painting was already finished. At the beginning this work was intended to show the architecture of Sevkabel Port, without any heros. However, the sailor decided in his own way to be the main hero on it.

Marina Kovalkova | Red Baltic Dogs

In your view, painting is a “song glorifying joy of life and pure love.” How do you sustain this positive energy in your art in today’s complex world?

In my view, in all times the one of the most important aims of art is to keep the focus and attention on peace, harmony and beauty, however the world around is complex. Once taking the art instrument into his or her hand an artist is responsible for the reality that he or she is creating.

I do believe we are able to double everything we are focused on. Pure love and joy of life for me are the most beautiful things, the reasons to be and create. Thus, pure bright colors are very often on my works. Henry Matisse and his great pure colored works obviously have great influence on my way I see the world and convert it through my own perception into the painting.

You’ve exhibited in major art spaces like the Tretyakov Gallery. How has the reception of your work in such institutions influenced your artistic journey?

When I saw my works in the Tretyakov Gallery I felt one of my cherished dream had come true. My works were exhibited at the Tretyakov Gallery at the same time when Mikhail Vrubel’s masterpieces were displayed in the adjacent gallery hall. Undoubtedly, this was a significant event in my creative life, which inspired me to create new works and explore new techniques. This is how the idea for the new art series “Mountains” emerged.

Marina Kovalkova | Theory Of Everything

If painting is a “door to the fifth dimension,” what would you say that fifth dimension looks or feels like for you?

In the fifth dimension, time is synchronized, and everything happens in the same place and at the same moment. I experience the same thing in the process of creation, when I am immersed in the process and focus my attention on something, the answer or experience is provided exactly where and when I am focused. This is reflected on the canvas. In the process of painting, as in the fifth dimension, there is no need to go anywhere for answers and experience; all the answers and solutions come naturally and effortlessly, requiring only the focus and vibration that you have chosen for the moment. And everything is possible.