On June 3rd of this year, I receveid an email from a Senior Editor at Southwest Art magazine asking me if I’d be interested in being featured in their Artist to Watch column for an upcoming August issue. Of course, the answer was yes! The article highlights things like my creative process, inspirations, style, and training, as well as showcases two of my paintings. I hope you enjoy reading it.
Antonina Zenin
Sparkle and glow
“WE DREAM IN colors borrowed from the sea.” So goes a popular inspirational quote that’s been printed on mugs, cards, and T-shirts. For Antonina Zenin, however, the ocean’s profundity of color isn’t merely the stuff of dreams. Time and again, the plein-air artist has brought the colors of the sea to life on her canvas, often in the morning or early evening light, when they are most radiant on the water. “I cannot tone it down,” confesses Zenin, who considers colorist Ovanes Berberian a key mentor. “I like an impressionistic, colorful look
and feel that creates excitement.”
Peruse the contemporary impressionist’s oeuvre of oil paintings and you’ll find numerous lavishly textured seascapes that sparkle and glow in chromatic harmony. There are white-capped waves unfurling upon pink and purple boulders; incoming tides lapping against the shore in luminous, gold-flecked ripples; and coastal cypress trees tinged with the fiery glimmers of a sunset. Many of Zenin’s works are inspired by painting trips to the Monterey Peninsula area—just a short drive south from her home in San Jose, CA—where Point Lobos State Natural Reserve and other favorite areas greet her warmly like old friends. “As soon as I get there, I feel like a different person,” says the artist. “It’s the feeling of happiness the ocean gives you.”
Cormorants at Sunrise, oil, 36 x 36. Available at James J. Rieser Fine Art Gallery
Representation
James J. Rieser Fine Art, Carmel, CA;
Upcoming show
Eight Takes: California Impressions,
Harrington Gallery, Pleasanton, CA
dates - tbd
Evening Glow—Point Lobos, oil, 20 x 24. Available at James J. Rieser Fine Art Gallery
Even as a child growing up on the Russian island of Sakhalin, Zenin found joy in the sea. She relished the short nautical journeys she occasionally took with her father, a sailor who worked on large seafaring cargo ships. She also loved to paint, and when her family moved inland, Zenin started taking lessons at a local art school. She continued painting even after earning her degree in graphic design and embarking on a successful career in that field.
Today Zenin is scooping up top honors for her works from prestigious groups like the California Art Club and the American Impressionist Society. Her award-winning strategy hinges upon one main goal: to convey to viewers the emotion she feels when she observes a scene, be it the ocean, a floral still life, or the sand dunes of Carmel. “I go after the effects of light,” says Zenin, “and everything else is secondary.”
—Kim Agricola