Ever since i stumbled upon ~KaterinaBelkina's Paint Series i knew i wanted to do an article about it. Even though Photography and Photomanipulation are not my field of expertise, Katerina's love and understanding of Traditional Art (and of Art as a whole) and its great masters surpassed all distinctions of technique... and I hoped every traditional artist would be able to see this. Besides, I learned to my great pleasure that Katerina is an accomplished painter, and that all textures and other materials for her manipulations and photos were done by her on oils, chalk or pencil.
As we celebrate Women today, we celebrate them as individuals, artists, creators and life-givers. ~KaterinaBelkina's unique energy offers us a particular, symbiotic view on the personality and works of the Traditional masters of all time.

Tumanova Katerina (Belkina) is a Russian Digital Artist, Photographer and Painter. Member of the Russian Union of Photo Artists, her works have been shown in Russia and other european countries, as well as in Canada and the U.S. Her photos have been published in important publications, such as National Geographic, Homme, Seventeen, Il Fotografo and many more.



Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do.

I was always artist, as far as I remember. Also I always thought I can work miracles and that I’m a fairy… but this has nothing to do to the article…

I was always surrounded by museums, art-books. My mother is an artist, my father – mathematician and an art connoisseur. So I’ve always been inspired by the great and the beautiful… as long as I remember. I’ve had numerous experiments with different materials and spheres of art. And now I’m trying to unite in both me and my works the experience and outer beauty of the past – mostly from visual arts, and the modern conceptual art, which has lost some finesse and mysticism.

You have a successful career as a professional artist, balancing commercial work for well-known publications and personal exhibitions in your country and abroad. How is it like to be an artist in Russia today? Do you feel that being from where you are has a visible influence in your work?

It is certainly hard. In Russia there’re lots of good artists but it has never been easy for them to get through. The Russian mentality dictates the an artist is accepted in Russia after he’s accepted elsewhere. All the famous artists who live and work now have had a long and uneasy way. I guess I’m a bit more lucky – I have come out just recently and a lot of general people and people of art. Maybe it’s because the interest to the Russian art is now high. I can’t say that it has a direct impact on my work, but this impact exists and it’s getting all the stronger.

What was your motivation for doing the Paint Series?

At first I wanted to investigate and search locally and internally, but then the search led to something bigger. I started to investigate my inspirations. What did Vincent feel when he was creating self-portraits. Why was he doing that? What did he want to say? What would I feel if I was in his shoes? This transformed into learning more about myself… through an attempt to trace the process of creation of world masterpieces. Besides, it was nice to study the technical side of creation, the see the way my favorite artists were working. It was great watching the well known paintings transform in something new – something inside me. It was interesting to combine the two techniques and two arts – photography and painting. The idea to use myself as a model came up at the very beginning.



What moved you to choose those particular artists? Which was the easiest and the hardest one? Why?

This has a simple explanation. These have been the fascinating artists who have always inspired me, and I always loved their work. The list of artists is of course much longer, I’ve only chosen some. Subconsciously, - those who are especially dear to me, who have similar state and moods. The easiest was Van Gogh, partly because it was my early work, and the picture I start my projects with always work out easier. As I go deeper I make the task for myself more complex. The last Cezanne was a really difficult.. and I doubt it’s really worked. It’s a very remote interpretation.

It is noticeable that you did a throrough research on your chosen artists. Did you use a paticular methodology in approaching each subject and the concept to develop, or did they evolve in a more casual way?

I was looking through all the works, all the periods of each artist, all I could find on the net. Also I read biographies and investigated the technique at real canvases that you can find in the collection of Moscow museums. I thought a lot and let the works inspire me. Sometimes it was not enough.

Can you tell us a little about your work process? What tools did you use?

In this series I’m taking the basic instrument – my body and inspired by great artists use their techniques, my experience, and plunge into the intercourse to unite and be one. I’m overwhelmed by desire to not primitively mimic the technique, but plunge inside, learn what was driving the genius, what inspired him. Before starting each work I studied in detail the work of the artist. It’s a kind of a present to my favorite artists. All the materials or textures used in the compilations were painted by me in oil. Some things were drawn in pencil or chalk and then processed in Photoshop.

Do you have a favorite piece on the series?

My mood changes all the time. It used to be Petrov-Vodkin. Now it’s Picasso, the blue one.



Is there an artist you wish you would have done but didn’t? Any unapproachable ones?

Yes I admire Leonardo, but I won’t even try that. Maybe if one day I grow and develop to the same level of consciousness. But I’ll always remain mostly a woman. This is my charm.

Anything else you want to say?

The main aspect that unites the series is my own self. As the main object. This has a reason, many famous artists has a woman as this main object too. They were smelting their sexual energy into paints and this energy combine with talents and perfect technique gave us the well known masterpieces. Two waves of inspiration interlace in my works – one of the great artists and one of my own… that’s what made the work on Paint so very special.




My greatest appreciation for Katerina for answering my questions and sharing her thoughts on her beautiful art... and through her, my sincere appreciation for all Women on this day