The artist
Elena Doljenkova
Elena Doljenkova makes layered, atmospheric work across watercolour, acrylic and mixed media — the sea and its creatures, wildlife, and symbolic worlds where time and memory take form.
From the studio
Elena's work moves between two registers. On one side, luminous, closely observed studies of the sea and its creatures — jellyfish, seals, the harbour at sundown — and the wildlife she's drawn to. On the other, dense symbolic worlds built from collage, old paper, gold and the quiet machinery of time.
What ties them together is atmosphere. Each piece is made to be lived with and looked at slowly — rewarding the long look with another layer, another fragment of meaning.
Every work offered here is an original, signed piece — most one of a kind. Selected pieces are also available as archival giclée prints.
“I make layered stories about time, memory, and human experience — through symbolic images, natural forms, and the rich textures of mixed media.”
In her own words
My style & where it's heading
Five things that already run through the work — and that Elena is building into a deliberate visual language.
The owl Elena's statement keeps returning to is here too: Keeper of Hours is the fullest expression of this layered, symbolic language — alongside the clockwork sun of Be in Love with Your Life.
Layered surfaces
My work is built in layers — collage, paper, texture, old text, manuscripts, transparent veils, cracks, the traces of time. The paintings should feel like an archaeological find: a history hidden beneath the layers.
A central image
Each work has one strong protagonist — an owl, a woman, a bird, a symbol of time, an archetype. I don't simply depict an object; I build the world it emerges from.
Realism meets abstraction
One of my strengths is joining a recognisable image to an abstract ground — symbols, texture, collage. I look for the balance between the real and the free.
Time & memory
Time, memory, history and human experience run through everything: clocks, gears, manuscripts, old papers, maps, the marks the years leave behind. Each work asks — what story is this telling?
Organic forms
Leaves, branches, circles, spirals, the textures of nature keep returning. Even the mechanical and industrial stays tied to something living.
The studio palette
Recognisable by colour
A limited, earthy range Elena returns to again and again — so the work can be known before the signature is found.
Ochre
#c9a24b
Burnt sienna
#9a5b3f
Umber
#6f5a3f
Olive
#7a8f5b
Gold
#b8894b
Grey-blue
#6f8296