Art

paper

cuts The colorful pieces created by artist Yulia Brodskaya combine intricate beauty with an element of surprise.

“I draw and paint with paper instead of on it.” That’s artist Yulia Brodskaya’s simple summary of the work she does, in which she manipulates paper of different cuts, colors, sizes and textures to create one-of-akind, three-dimensional pieces infused with life and emotion.

But the works this Russian-born UK resident creates are hardly simple; they’re intricate and detailed, executed with her own constantly evolving techniques that require precision, not to mention days’ (or sometimes weeks’) worth of hard work and attention. She’s one of the leading practitioners of the art of quilling (also known as paper filigree), which dates back to Renaissance France and Italy and 18th-century England and lately has enjoyed a burst of new popularity. But Brodskaya has made her own version of quilling something new and thrilling— paper creations of hers are now owned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Country Music Association and Oprah Winfrey.

The 39-year-old was trained as a graphic designer, but for over a decade has been a highly regarded paper artist. “For these ‘drawn’ pieces, I follow a pencil line that I previously sketched on a background with bent or shaped segments of card or heavy paper, which I glue on top, thus creating a 3D interpretation of a line,” she explains. About eight years ago she mastered her “painting” technique; she says it “imitates brushstrokes with tightly packed strips of paper, achieved by combining different color strips in a method similar to mixing paints on a palette.” This approach has become Brodskaya’s specialty: She’s written a book on the topic called Painting With Paper: Painting on the Edge, and even launched her own mobile game, “Paper Mingle.”

On the following pages you’ll see samples of Brodskaya’s vast portfolio, from flower designs (which she finds therapeutic to create) to intense portraits that depict emotion as a traditional painting would, but with the added quality of a third dimension. Is this what they mean by looking good on paper?

The “Seeing” portrait is the largest and most complex one artist Yulia Brodskaya has ever worked on, and it’s one of her favorites. “I stumbled upon this amazing photo of a woman waiting for the rain to stop; there was something special in that woman’s eyes,” she says. “I tried my absolute best to convey that inner light in my paper interpretation.”

This page: Whenever the artist needs a respite from papering detailed and intricate human faces, she creates flower designs such as “Poppy.” “They help me to recharge and get ready for more intense projects such as portraits,” she says. Opposite: Brodskaya’s early portraits are of elderly people because she originally thought the edge-glued paper technique would only work for wrinkled, weathered skin. “LovesDoves” is inspired by an older gentleman feeding pigeons in Paris.

This page: Sometimes it’s the materials that guide the artist’s creation, and that is the case with “Peacock Blast.” Brodskaya made these textural circle elements using crimpled strips of cards. Opposite: “Girl With Peacock Earrings” was the first portrait Brodskaya completed that depicts a young face. Of her signature “painting” technique she says: “You see the 3D paper ‘brushstrokes’ laid in an impressionist manner.”