Elena Degenhardt
Elena Degenhardt is a German representational painter, specialising in soft pastels but also working in other dry media, acrylics and oils. She is dividing her time between the city of Düsseldorf and the North Sea coast, Germany, painting both en plein air and in her studio.
A professional artist since 2017, Elena is an elected member of The German Federal Association of Professional Artists (BBK – Berufsverband Bildender Künstler Düsseldorf). She has reached the status of the Master Pastelist with the IAPS – International Association of pastel Societies, a Signature Member Status in the Pastel Society of America (PSA) and…
Read moreWorks
Allures of the Sea
- Pastel
- 30x40cm
- £890
Pandemic Dream Dissolving
- Pastel
- 40x50cm
- £1,750
Pandemic Dreams Anticipation
- Pastel
- 25x20cm
- £665
About
Elena Degenhardt is a German representational painter, specialising in soft pastels but also working in other dry media, acrylics and oils. She is dividing her time between the city of Düsseldorf and the North Sea coast, Germany, painting both en plein air and in her studio.
A professional artist since 2017, Elena is an elected member of The German Federal Association of Professional Artists (BBK – Berufsverband Bildender Künstler Düsseldorf). She has reached the status of the Master Pastelist with the IAPS – International Association of pastel Societies, a Signature Member Status in the Pastel Society of America (PSA) and an Associate Member Status in the Society of Graphic Fine Art, UK (ASGFA). Associate Artist of the Unison Colour, she is also a Member of Poets Artists community, Malta Society of Arts, Pastel Guild of Europe and Association of Professional Artists of Austria (Berufsvereinigung der Bildender Künstler Österreichs).
Born in West Siberia, she spent her early years in Germany and Latvia, grew up in East Siberia and moved to Munich, Germany in 2003 where she founded her own family. Having moved around the country but also having lived in the UK, Austria and Malta due to her husband’s work, Elena and her family settled back in Germany at the end of 2019. Her multicultural and multilingual experience, as well as frequent relocations both in her childhood and in adult life influenced her artistic choice of themes, such as lost identities, displacement, bonds, human fears, memory and time. Through her art, she is also raising awareness to the problem of marine plastic pollution, mental health issues and women related topics.
Classically educated in art, Elena obtained two university degrees in literatures and languages and got back to art in 2015, after a successful international career in teaching and translating. Between 2015 and 2018, she attended pastel classes with Jo Hall, honorary SGFA member and its past president, at the Norden Farm Centre for the Arts in Maidenhead, England; life model portrait master classes with Gareth Reid, winner of the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2017, and life figure drawing classes with renowned Maltese artist and printmaker Jesmond Vassallo at the Malta Society of Arts.
Her work has been showed internationally, in juried and curated exhibitions with the The Pastel Society UK, The Royal Society of Marine Artists and The Society of Graphic Fine Art at the Mall Galleries in London; with the La Société Nationale des Beaux Arts in Paris; Malta Society of Arts in Valetta; The Pastel Society of America, NY; with the The International Association of Pastel Societies and 33 Contemporary and PoetsArtists at the Zhou B Art Center, at Abend Gallery and Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art in the USA, among others.
Publications of her work include those in the Yearbook ‘Arte y Libertad XVI’ and ModPortrait Special Catalogue 2020 and 2021 (Galeria Artelibre in collaboration with the MEAM – European Museum of Modern Art, Barcelona, Spain), in several PoetsArtists publications, USA, French art magazine Pratique Des Arts, Artists&Illustrators, UK, Pastel Journal (USA), Richeson75 Landscape, Seascape & Architecture 2020 exhibition book (USA) and “Les Pastellistes 2020” Exhibition catalogue, Canada.
She received multiple international awards, including the Best of Show Award in the IAPS – International Association of Pastel Societies 2021 Gallery Show at the Zhou B Art Center in Chicago for the piece ‘Inheritance’, an Honorable Mention Award in the IBPC – International Biennial Portrait Competition 2021 at the Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art for her self portrait ‘Breaking point’; Honorable Mention Award in the UART International Online Pastel Competition 2021 for her painting ‘Levitation III’, People’s Choice Award in Richeson75 Landscape&Architecture Competition 2020 for ‘Northern Melody’; several Honorable Mentions in The Pastel Guild of Europe’s competitions and 3d place for ‘Meditation V. The Subconscious’; several Outstanding Pastel Awards in the BoldBrush International Painting Competition. She has been a finalist in a few international art competitions, including the UART 2019 Online Pastel Competition, Richeson75 Landscape&Architecture Competition 2020 and 2021, International Biennial Portrait Competition 2021 at the Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art, USA and a semi-finalist in the Art Renewal Center’s 15th ARC Salon (2020). In 2021, Elena received governmental grant for her work “Pandemic kids”-series.