The colourist, the oracle and the demon
Four strong cultures tug at Schuvaloff-Maijala´s soul. Finnish, Russian, Swedish and French emotions rage in her heart. This mental storm could lead to catastrophe or to some kind of cultural synthesis, a flash of creative inspiration.
Steeped in these cultures, Schuvaloff has developed into a wonderful colourist in whose art can be seen Russian colours, gold, romance and fairytale magic or Finnish workaday honesty and unadorned self-inspection or the traditional Swedish anarchy looming unexpectedly from otherwise serious paintings or the cool, analytical French view of the world and life´s emotions.
Schuvaloff-Maijala herself says that she replays her life through her paintings, rediscovering it through colour like some kind of colourist´s psychoanalysis. "I have stopped wondering about myself," she says.
Elena Schuvaloff-Maijala´s art emphasises her bottomless thirst for life and curiosity. Her works are always doors to be opened, seeking new beginnings and collecting the clues to existence. Sometimes there are few to be found and sometimes a door opens into new dimensions providing deep artistic satisfaction.
Schuvaloff uses her colours fearlessly, loading her canvas with heavy layers of paint, gold splashes with wasteful abandon as from a brush wielded by a Russian princess but the final work conjures up delicacy, quietitude and fragility.
Her paintings embody magic, too. Here a demon is set free and the human beast reveals the depths of its soul. There an oracle speaks from the canvas, proclaiming future turmoil but always the final work speaks of beauty, reconciliation and hope through the interplay of colour.
www.elenamaijala.com