10 Questions with Elena Popova
Elena Sergeevna Popova (b. 1982, Moscow) is a visual artist living and working in Cyprus.
She graduated in 2005 from the Moscow University of Finance and Law (MFUA) with a degree in Law. Later, she studied painting and art history at the St. Petersburg State Institute of Culture, completed courses in academic drawing and painting at the Stroganov Russian State University of Arts and Industry, and at the School of Fine Arts by E. Zalegina.
Popova is a member of the Professional Union of Artists of Russia and the Eurasian Art Union.
Her works have been shown internationally, including participation in the Asia Art Festival (Colombo, Sri Lanka, 2025) and the Visual Art Journal – Times Square Project (New York, 2025), where her painting appeared on a billboard and in an interview. She has been published in Monochromica – The Journal of Monochrome Art (Canada, 2025) and in Artistonish Magazine (Canada, 2025).
In Russia, she has taken part in leading national projects such as Russian Art Week (2023, 2025), Art of the Silhouette (2023, 2024), Architecture of Russia (2024), St. Petersburg Art Week (2024, 2025), Soul of Russia – Beijing Exhibition (2024), We Are Russia (2024), and Beauty of Russia (2025). She has also been invited to serve as a jury member in national competitions, including the Russian Art Cup (2024, 2025).
Elena Popova - Portrait
ARTIST STATEMENT
For Elena, painting is her way of slowing down time and holding on to what would otherwise be lost. She often says that each line and brushstroke feels like breathing, a rhythm of inhaling, exhaling, and pausing. This rhythm helps her search for balance and truth on canvas.
She finds inspiration in the sea, in music and dance, and in the fragile emotions that pass quickly in human life. Her works carry a sense of stillness, a quiet space where the viewer can stop and simply feel. Light and colour in her paintings are not background elements but living forces that give weight to silence as well as movement.
For Elena, art is both protection and sharing: a way to protect the fleeting moment, and to share it so that others can recognise something of themselves in it. Her paintings invite the viewer to stay a little longer, to breathe, and to enter into this moment with her.
Blossom Whisper © Elena Popova
INTERVIEW
First of all, you studied law before turning to painting. What made you decide to pursue art more seriously?
At first, I chose law because it seemed a stable and respectable path. I first fell in love with painting through the works of the Impressionists, Monet and Manet, and later Van Gogh, Modigliani, and Kandinsky. Their canvases were not just images but living emotions. That passion led me to study art history in depth, and I graduated from St. Petersburg State Institute of Culture. During this process, I realised that art was not only something I admired, but something already living inside me, something I had to bring out through my own work. Once I understood this, there was no way back to law.
You’ve trained in different schools and disciplines. How did this diverse education shape your artistic style?
Academic training gave me the basics: light and shade, composition, proportion. Without that, it’s hard to build a painting. Oil attracted me with its softness and plasticity. I like how the brushstroke stays alive, tangible, sometimes I even touch the surface just to feel the texture. Watercolour, for me, is lightness and transparency, but also strict discipline: you have to guide the flow of water and pigment instead of fighting it. From each I took something: structure from academic study, expression from oil, patience and control from watercolour. Together they form my language, rooted in tradition, but open to freedom.
Peony Symphony © Elena Popova
You often describe painting as a way of slowing down time. Can you tell us more about this idea?
When I paint, time truly stops for me. I dissolve completely into the canvas and forget the outside world. There is no rush, no noise, only the surface, the paint, and the movement of the brush. In those hours, I almost stop existing in everyday reality. It feels like another dimension, where I can simply be myself. That sense of freedom and silence is why painting has become essential to me.
Can you describe your creative process, from the first idea to the finished painting?
An idea can come in different ways: sometimes from nature, a landscape, flowers, or the sky. Sometimes it’s simply the wish to try something new. I don’t stick to one subject; for me, it’s important to notice beauty in many things and bring it onto the canvas. Usually, I start with a sketch or with an image in my mind. I set the composition and immediately think about light, where it goes, and how it spreads. The first layers create the mood. Then I add colour and texture, working with a brush or a knife. In watercolour, the main thing is transparency and the ability to guide the water rather than fight it. Sometimes the work follows the plan, but often there are unexpected strokes or stains. I try not to correct them too quickly, but to see how they can change the painting. For an artist, a work never feels fully finished; there is always the urge to add more. But the most valuable skill is to know when to stop, to catch the moment when the canvas is already breathing on its own and doesn’t need another layer.
What role do light and colour play in your work?
For me, everything in a painting begins with light. It sets the mood and makes the work alive. Colour follows the light, it gives rhythm. I rarely think about form on its own, what matters is how light passes through it and what it makes you feel. With oil, I enjoy the depth that builds in layers. With watercolor, it’s the transparency, as if the light goes straight through the paper.
White Orchid © Elena Popova
Wisteria Elegance © Elena Popova
Where do you find your main sources of inspiration? In the sea, music, dance, or human emotions?
My main sources of inspiration are the sea, music, and dance. In the sea, I feel rhythm and breath. Music sets the mood. Dance brings movement. Most often, it’s the combination of these that makes me want to paint. Flamenco is especially close to me; it carries both silence and fire, and that always resonates with my work.
What do you hope viewers feel when they look at your work?
The first to say it was my mother: “There is you in your paintings.” Later, I heard the same from viewers. They told me they could feel me, my energy and myemotions, through my work. When I paint, I dissolve into the canvas, and a piece of my soul remains there. This is why I carefully choose the new home for each painting.
Your art has been shown internationally, even in Times Square. How did it feel to see your work presented on that scale?
Seeing my work on Times Square was unexpected. Normally, my paintings live in collections, on the walls of homes or in galleries. This time, they were in the very centre of the city, on a screen, where people saw them just by passing by. It was a different experience: to realise that a painting can also exist in such an open space.
Sparrow and Spring Buds © Elena Popova
You’ve also served as a jury member in art competitions. How does this experience influence your own practice?
When you serve on a jury, you start looking at paintings differently. You notice not only the technique, but also how complete the idea feels. Sometimes you come across unexpected solutions, and it broadens your view. For me, the main thing is that after such an experience, I become stricter with my own work and more aware of how it will be seen from the outside.
Lastly, looking ahead, what are your artistic goals or dreams for the future?
In the future, I want to explore new horizons in both themes and techniques. I am interested in trying different formats, working on a larger scale, and looking for new approaches. I want each new painting to bring something unexpected. And of course, I dream of a solo exhibition where all this can be shown together.
Artist’s Talk
Al-Tiba9 Interviews is a promotional platform for artists to articulate their vision and engage them with our diverse readership through a published art dialogue. The artists are interviewed by Mohamed Benhadj, the founder & curator of Al-Tiba9, to highlight their artistic careers and introduce them to the international contemporary art scene across our vast network of museums, galleries, art professionals, art dealers, collectors, and art lovers across the globe.
