Deynega Tatyana

Biography

I was born in Yekaterinburg, Russia. My artistic biography actually started when I was a child. During the school years much time was devoted to music lessons in musical school where I received my degree in music and where I got my first introduction into art. Also I was an active member of the school artistic society where I volunteered as an active self-taught artist. At that time my artistic abilities were first noticed by my parents and then by teachers at school where I received my first recognition as an artist. Nevertheless I was not going to connect my future with painting professionally because it was not family tradition and after high school I entered the Urals Polytechnic University to get an engineering degree in physics. However my artistic nature turned out to be stronger in me and, simultaneously with receiving the university degree, I graduated from the evening school of art for adults. Partially my returning to fine art was inspired by music because being a musician was always my second nature.

Since 1993 I devoted my life to art and have been working mainly as a professional artist. In 1997 I began showing my works in exhibitions in Yekaterinburg and in the Yekaterinburg region, in the town of Verchoturiye, where I worked doing painting for the church museum and creating murals at the Svyato-Nickolaevsky Monastery. In 2001 I started my work as a designer of polygraph products, and since that time I combined my work as a painter and as a designer. In 2004, I was the featured artist in a solo exhibition in my hometown of Yekaterinburg in the American Informational Center. During my latest years in Russia I was commissioned to create a designer project for the Museum of History of Energy Corporation in the Ural Region.

After I moved to the USA in December of 2008, I continued my work as an artist. In 2010 I joined the Northwest Arts Alliance in Seattle and took part in the juried show “Best of the Northwest”. In 2010 my first personal exhibition was opened in Seattle at Daniel Smith. At the beginning of 2011 I joined EAFA (Evergreen State Association of Fine Arts) and constantly took part in their exhibitions in the Seattle Design Center. In 2012 my works were shown in the Russian Consulate in Seattle and I had my personal exhibition in the Tsuga Gallery in Bothell WA. At the same time I joined the North-West Pastel Society. In 2013 and 2014 I had three personal exhibitions conducted in two Russian Community centers in the Seattle area. In 2015 I was granted Signature Member status of of Northwest Pastel Society. Since 2015 I spent a lot of time in Canada where I also continued to be an active member of artistic community. I participated in different exhibitions and juried shows of the North American continent and won a few awards at these shows.

Despite being in love with many genres of art, my preference is to work on people and animal portraits and in this genre. Since I started my artistic biography more than 29 years ago I have done many commissioned works, both from live poses and from photographs. In painting I prefer to use oil and pastel media and in graphics a rare medium that is called "Dry Brush". During recent years I started to develop a new direction of my creativity in decorative art. I was fortunate to learn the ancient tempura medium that was used for painting traditional icons. Also, I opened for myself the genre of decorative appliques done by crochet.

I’m now running and offering classes for students who would like to share my experience in fine art and in music.

My works are in private, corporate and museum collections in Russia, the USA, Canada and in other countries of the world.