Alyona Nickelsen

Born in Kiev, Ukraine, Alyona Nickelsen commonly resides in Southern California. Her artistic career began early as she was called on to complete a series of artistic casts for her school, but eventually received her formal schooling in accounting.

flowing in Russian, Ukrainian and English, she mov to the United States in 1999 Finding that there were more opportunities for artists, she immediately decided to re-enter the art world.

Nickelsen presently discovered the flexibility and creativity of using colored pencils. After endles experimentation, she unfolded a colored pencil process that she could use to create super-realistic art that met her possess exacting standards.

She has exhibited and won awards in numerous prestigious national and international juried exhibits such as The Salmagundi cudgel Colored Pencil Society of America, Catherine Lorillard Wolfe bludgeon and others.

"When I was a little girl, each time I kissed my Mom goodbye before a drawn out day at home, I asked her to bring me "something good" from work. She knew that I didn't mean candy or toys. Pencils were the sweetest candy in the world for me I liked the scent of the wood; I liked to touch their sheeny surface; and their colors brightened the childhood days of the gray and the not-so-bright reality of the Soviet Union," she says.

Now, after many years, she direct the eyes back at her youth and understands that the colored pencils were her shelter; "little miracles that kept the totalitarian machine from killing the uniqueness of my artistic spirit It is little wonder that I chose colored pencils for my primary medium as a professional artist."

Using multiple layers of pencil and mineral spirits, Nickelsen overspreads the surface of the paper and eliminates pencil hits completely, allowing her to have perfect control of the medium and to exhibit the finest details of the subjects

"I leave the white of the paper (using white paper exclusively) for the brightest highlights possible in a composition. The multiple layers of dark colors give deepness to the black backgrounds," she says.

"I am an optimist. I think positive. I have faith and I have trust In my artwork, I display the bright side of life and use shadow alone to emphasize light. I believe that beauty will save the world. In my small way I am contributing to it by the agency of spreading the word in the language I know best--shapes and colors."

For more information, e-mail brushandpencil@cox.net; visit www.brushandpencil.com.

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