Artescape for me has been instrumental in rekindling my creativity. It’s as simple as having a space to go to, to get away to and having encouragement from others. Since the Autumn 2014 I have been going usually twice a week. The space is wonderful because it’s very central and it just is a great space to work in. I would never have started painting and drawing again without having this space to go to. I have met lots of other creative people in the group who like me need to have a creative outlet in order to feel good. It’s great that we all now have a goal to work towards in the form of an exhibition in July 2015. The group is very relaxed and we can share ideas, talk about inspirational artists, go on gallery visits and support each other in our creative journeys. The encouragement I have received by going to the group has been really like gold. (Helen)

Natalia Goncharova (1881 -1962)

Natalia Goncharova was a remarkable Russian avant-garde artist, painter, costume designer, writer, illustrator and set designer. Together with another five Russian artists Goncharova was a part of a group of women known as amazons of the avant-garde, who contributed to the development of modern art in the first quarter of the 20th century.

Her great-aunt was a wife of a famous Russian poet of the Romantic era Alexander Pushkin, who wrote Evgeniy Onegin. Natalia was born in Russian province in a wealthy family. When she was 10 Goncharovs' family moved to the capital - Moscow. By the age of 20 Natalia entered Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where she met her life partner and sole mate Mikhail Larinov. Larinov persuaded her to focus on painting and she did not mind. Together they joined an art group called The Donkey's Tail. The members of the group - Natalia Goncharova, Mikhail Larinov, Mark Chagall, Kazimir Malevich ans Aleksandr Shevchenk dreamed of the establishment of independent Russian modern art that would not be influenced by European traditions. 

Goncharova tried all the avant-garde styles, never sitting on just one - cubism, futurism, abstractionism. She's done a lot of icon painting, paintings of Russian folk-art in primitivistic style. Her works were influenced by the meters of modern art such as Matisse, Van Gogh, Picasso. Her Russian roots and inspiration she got from her culture can be noticed in flower motives, depiction of peasant's everyday life, pictures of onion-shaped churches she illustrated in her works. Natalia was an extremely prolific artist never afraid of change and in constant search for her own unique style. For her firs solo exhibition alone she produced over 700 paintings. 

In 1921 after the establishment of the Soviet era in Russia Goncharova and Larinov moved to Paris, where Natalia designed ballet costumes and sets for Sergei Diagilev's Russian Ballett. She was not always understood and accepted by the mainstream during her lifetime. But it din't stop her. Unlike most of the women in the beginning of 20th century Goncharova always done what she wanted as an artist and as a woman. She met her lifetime partner at the age of 20, was not afraid of what people might think when she traveled with him alone and became his wife 40 ears later. Today Natalia Goncharova is the most expensive women artist - her still-life "The Flowers" was sold in London in 2008 for $10.8 million.

Darja Rovba