Natalia Chernogolova

Natalia Chernogolova is a Belarusian artist.
She was born on 15 May 1954 in Zhitkovichi, Gomel Region, USSR (now Belarus). She graduated from the Minsk School of Art in 1976 and went on to study in the Art and Drawing Department of the Pedagogical Institute in Vitebsk, graduating in 1982. In 1989 she was elected to the USSR Union of Artists, undertaking various official commissions.
Natalia paints without preliminary sketches or drawings. "Painting is her life. She finds it impossible not to paint. She works with passion and vitality, and her love of life is evident in her work. Natalia has developed a way of painting using only her fingers. This, underpinned by her long classical training, enables her to capture the vigour and spirit that she sees in the subjects she has chosen."
She first visited the United Kingdom in 2005 when she created many vivid oil paintings of street scenes in Congleton and Cheshire landscapes. Her neo-expressionist paintings appear in collections and galleries in the US, UK, Germany, Belarus, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, Canada and Israel. She lives in Brest, Belarus.

The following short article and interview by London art critic John Thaxter appeared as part of a brochure for her participation in the Landmark Arts Centre art fair and exhibition in Teddington, Greater London, in June 2009; it was written to provide buyers of her work with a brief career summary.

"AN outstanding contemporary female artist from Belarus, Natalia Chernogolova is making her third trip to the UK this summer to exhibit, paint, sell her work and make new friends in the art world. 'I live for art', she says. 'I work everywhere - at an exhibition, in the street, on a train, in a theatre. I don't like 'thin' paintings. I always work on a few paintings simultaneously - I experiment all the time. And I rely on intuition.'

"Miss Chernogolova studied at the arts faculty of the Vitebsk University, home town of Marc Chagall, graduating in 1982; and like him she once made her gallery entrance on a white horse. As a Russian artist she began as a socialist realist and in 1989 was elected to the USSR Union of Artists. But with perestroika and the break-up of the Soviet Union she became free to express herself more exuberantly and her paintings and drawings can now be found in private collections and public galleries in Belarus, Poland, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, the UK, North America, Australia and Israel.

"Born in Belarus in May 1954, Natalia arrives directly from Minsk where she has recently enjoyed critical acclaim for her one-woman show of 40 major paintings at the National Gallery: Palace of Art, which attracted more than 6,000 visitors and received national television news coverage.

"This is her first time in London and while here she hopes to visit all the principal galleries as well as exhibitions of individual artists. But her first stop is Teddington where she is taking part in the Midsummer Art Exhibition at the Landmark Centre, including the creation of her famous on-the-spot portraits in oils using fingertips instead of paint-brushes. 'Hands are more expressive,' she declares. 'They give me more power to express myself — they give me a better touch.' ".

• 1976—1988 — Brest, Minsk — Belarus
• 1988 — Gurzufa — Crimea
• 1989 — Minsk, Brest — Belarus
• 1990 — Minsk, Grodno — Belarus
• 1991 — Nałęczów — Poland
• 1992 — Nałęczów, Katowice, Puławy, Gołąb — Poland; Brest - Belarus; Ostrowiec, Biała — Poland
• 1993 — Zakopane, Krynica, Nałęczów — Poland
• 1994 — Nałęczów — Poland; Brest — Belarus
• 1995 — Brest — Belarus
• 1996 — Zakopane — Poland
• 1997 — Brest, Minsk — Belarus
• 1998 — Brest, Minsk — Belarus
• 1999 — Siedlce — Poland
• 2000 — Puławy — Poland
• 2001 — Biała — Poland
• 2002 — Puławy — Poland
• 2005 — Brest — Belarus
• 2005 — Galeria Andre (www.galeriaandre.com) — Warsaw and worldwide
• 2006 — Manchester Central Library, UK: Colours of Love, 25 July-29 September
• 2009 — National Gallery Palace of Art, Minsk, Belarus
• 2009 — Landmark Arts Centre, Teddington, UK, 19–21 June
• 2010 — Todmorden Fine Art, Todmorden, Lancashire, UK, March
• 2014 — Belarusian Palace of Art, Minsk

• Belarus National State TV and Radio: [1]
• Radio Belarus: [2]
• Galeria Andre: [3]