GOLDEN TOUCH Elix Art is an art duet of Daria Dubrovina and Liudmila Suhorucova
3. It seems that nature really gives you a lot of inspiration in the modern techniques you use?
Most of our works are made with mixed technique. Acrylic, texture paste, gypsum, colored and transparent resin, different finishing, glass glow, oil - we like to use a lot of texture to make our work solid.
4. What is going on when you two work together?
Every new painting starts from a casual conversation which leads to an idea. After a week of talking, we start with the sketches and discuss the key to composition, choice of materials and color. Details are very important. We do not finish our project until our idea is on the canvas the way we had envisioned it. It’s hard to believe but when it comes to the actual painting, we are able to start from two opposite sides of the canvas and meet each other in the middle. We paint this way and never have disagreements in the process. The painting has a life of its own; it just comes alive through our hands.
5. Which exhibitions you made and where are located your art works?
In the last few years our work has been exhibited all over Europe drawing a lot of interest. Italy, Russia, Moldova, Spain, France, Monte Carlo are just a few places where our paintings have been on display. At the present, you can see an exhibit of our work at one of the best hotels in the Côte d’Azur, the Carlton Hotel in Cannes, France. The opening night was truly spectacular as the hotel welcomed the attendees with a special cocktail mirroring the style of our painting which of course included a touch of gold.
1. How did you start to work as duo?
We both came to Milan to get a Masters degree in Interior Design at the Istituto Europeo di Design. It was while attending IED that we were paired to work together on a few projects. Although we are from two different countries, Russia and Moldova, we really clicked.After the second collaboration, which happened to be Nespresso, we realised we had a lot in common. We also happened to be roommates at the time and that is really how we stumbled upon the idea of painting together. Dasha was working on a painting for a client in Tuscany and Liudmila, not realizing the canvas was still wet, smudged it. Liudmila felt horrible and wanted to fix the damage she had caused. We thought it was best if perhaps we fixed the damage together.We enjoyed the process so much, that we decided to try making more paintings as a team. We first started working with small canvases and as our requests for work increased, we switched to bigger canvases. That’s basically how our art progressed. We now work with canvases sized 1 to 2 square meters. We are truly amazed and grateful that something that began mostly as a hobby and sort of an accident, has grown so much. People who have attended of our exhibits actually recognize us in the subway of Milan, that’s pretty cool.
2. What is your inspiration, is it coming from nature? What about materials, shapes?
We both are emotional artists and we feel nature in our hearts; our inspiration comes from places that we have visited and from our experiences. To give you an example, we have paintings about Italian coffee, this was a result of a conversation about how many shades of brown you can get from it. Coffee with foam, black coffee or coffee with milk. Everything we put on a canvas, even the coffee beans reflect texture. That’s also how we came up with the idea of adding a gold line on top of it, as to resemble the detail of a coffee cup. But from that moment gold became our signature final touch. And the name of our group Elix also came to life in that moment. Elix, is just that, the meaning of harmonic, curved line, elixir, spiral. For example the painting “Origin” with the golden circle inside was inspired by the knowledge of the earth’s different energies, such as water, fire, earth, air and the fifth element of life.