Thought-out Realism
G
raphic artist and watercolorist, Eleanor Mill, had a passion for art since her early childhood. Her parents encouraged her aspiration and gave her any art materials that were available at the time. “I spent hours at my desk experimenting with colour paper, pencils, paints and glue,” she recalls. “Moreover, I was lucky to be born in St. Petersburg, one of the best cities in Russia. Our famous Hermitage museum and other outstanding monuments of Russian history are just at hand.” Eleanor’s education is steeped in the arts. She spent three years at the Elementary Art Education at St. Petersburg Children’s Art School, “Alexandrino.” For her secondary education, she attended St. Petersburg BV Johansson State Academy Art Lyceum at the Russian Academy of Arts, Architecture department.
She obtained her higher education honours degree in Graphic Design after studying at Baltic Institute of Foreign Languages and Intercultural Cooperation from 2006 to 2012. Eleanor’s portfolio shows both detailed drawings along with realistic painting. She enjoys both; however, she admits that she doesn’t love both equally. “The graphic art is my real deep passion. It’s a pinnacle of all the art forms for me. I feel all the aesthetic sophistication in this media,” she says. “Senses sharpen and emotions intensified: concentration is drawn to the magic play of light and shadow, admiration for the form of an object. I can call it the deepest and the most sensual of the arts.” In most cases, Eleanor’s paintings begin with a drawing. “But if I work on plein air, I skip a preliminary
ArtDiction | 24 | March/April 2020
