Olena Linse is a Swiss artist with Ukrainian roots. Her imposing paintings represent and symbolize female self-confidence and assurance. She admits they are affected by a Southern European ideal of beauty and make reference to classical and ancient Greek models. “My pictures”, says the artist, “evolve in the head.
I do not work with models, but I can see faces, hear stories of friends and acquaintances and use them in my portraits. Often, a symbiosis happens of what I hear, from my own life experiences, my feelings and my imagination”.
The portraits of Olena Linse show the face of mankind, not after their nature, but after the idealistic and humanistic stamped human picture of the artist; they arise from the recollection and from an ideal picture which she had in mind long, before she paints it artistically.
Before she starts painting, she has her artwork conceptually elaborated and prepared down to the smallest detail in her imagination. Her pictures, in spite of all dynamism and energy, radiate a remarkable degree of peace of mind.
