Valeria Konovalova, painter – Moscow

I work with watercolor because it reminds me of life itself: it flows where I never planned, making its own corrections and it doesn't allow me to pretend that mistakes were never made. Watercolor lives its own life, you can either negotiate with it and accept it or control it and fight it. This is the central theme of my work: duality.

Themes

As an artist, I always feel two personalities within me at the same time. One craves control, order and clear boundaries. The other is drawn to chaos and spontaneity, to accidental stains that compose themselves. These two forces exist in every piece, their struggle is my method.

Isolation

In my works, duality often merges with isolation, both the isolation that happened to the world, and the kind we choose voluntarily. For me, isolation is a studio where I shut myself off from external noise, as well as a space I am placed into by circumstances beyond my control. My series are like diaries of solitude, where each work holds two feelings at once: hope and fear, the joy of color and melancholy, the desire to be part of the world and the need to hide from it. To heighten this narrative I often use contrasting colors to emphasize the opposites.

Inspiration

My sources of inspiration come from many different realms:

• the vibrant culture, everyday life, and philosophy of Asia

• dreamlike landscapes

• the visual language of the 1980s and 1990s

• the imagined worlds of twentieth-century fantasists who anticipated the technological future

The roots of my style can be traced to surrealism and magical realism, traditions that allow me to expand the boundaries of conventional watercolor.

Creative Process

My creative process begins with chaos and spontaneity.

I start with a free-flowing composition, allowing random washes of paint to determine the initial form. From this foundation, I gradually build detail, transforming individual elements into self-contained worlds.

The process resembles a theatrical performance in which the stage remains constant while the scenery changes with each act.

This method reflects the fluidity of thoughts and emotions, allowing a single idea to evolve into a multidimensional universe.

Materials and Technique

I stretch my watercolors on wooden boards, where the softness and fluidity of pigments meet the rigidity of wood. I remove glass and frames because they create a barrier between the piece and the viewer. I want my paintings to be seen up close, to see the texture, the irregularities, the traces of water. This is my statement about honesty, about art not being hidden behind a barrier.

A Larger Narrative

Each piece is a fragment of a larger narrative. Together, they form a story about how we carry contradictions within us and learn to live with them. I am looking for a viewer who recognizes themselves in these ruptures, because we all carry two personalities inside. And only by acknowledging this, we stop being alone.