Elena Zolotnitsky says, “For me, whatever I paint, it is all about painting. And since the painting is the main subject and object, it is my main focus. That is when a chair is not really a chair, a rose is not actually a flower, and a face is not actually a person. I am left with painting time, space and emotion.”
Pink Valentines, oil on paper, 26 x 23¼"
A chair is not any specific chair, but it undoubtedly embodies an idea of “chair-ness.” It draws on the archetypal idea of chair, but in the end, it is simply paint. She explains, “The surface can take only that much paint and that much pushing around. You must be very careful in order not to kill it. Personally, I love my paintings fresh, with something un-said, a lacuna here and there. They are all in transition, they are becoming, just like myself.”
Muddy Waters (Extinct Series), oil on mylar, 15½ x 14"
Zolotnitsky’s process of becoming will be on display in her paintings in the exhibition About Time at Paul Mahder Gallery in Healdsburg, California, April 7 through June 5.
She comments, “I think that presently my paintings remind me of ‘sonnets’ (a poetic form of a specific structure for expressing courtly love)—conveying my admiration for life, art, beauty and enchantment in a format of a painting. I communicate my feelings and emotions in paint, its color and its plasticity. The way I am treating the surface—sometimes unsaid, sometimes undone—is an important part of each image. I try to make them as exciting and vibrant as I can in their seemingly repetitiveness. (How do you say ‘I love you’ in so many ways?). I treat every painting as a challenge, in tuned for that single true bright note, that I can start building the magic on. Allowing my sense of time and personal identity to dissolve into another dimension.”
Against the Light (Satin Wedding), oil on paper, 30 x 24"
Moonlight, oil and gold leaf on panel, 12 x 12"
The painting Muddy Waters was inspired by a scene on a morning walk. “I am seeing a tree— its silhouette dark on the darkness of the water fabric of the lake with some shimmering splashes of light and color here and there. You can barely make it out except for the tree trunk, which is splendid in its whiteness grounding the whole scene. I am thinking to myself, that is what I am going to paint today.” 
Red & Redder (Extinct Series), oil on mylar, 19½ x 22"In the process of developing her “memory of the idea of that tree” she hit a block. “I push paint everywhere else, increasing the viscosity. And…it is not happening. I have the harmony right; it is moody and dark. But still, [it’s] not happening. Then I wipe everything off except for the trunk and paint…[and a tree becomes] a chair...With the same of everything (mood, message, sentiment) it is now something else.” —
Paul Mahder Gallery
222 Healdsburg Avenue • Healdsburg, CA 95448
(707) 473-9150 • www.paulmahdergallery.com
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