Elena Bazanova

Elena was born in 1968 in Slantsy, near the border with Estonia. Her family moved to St Petersburg and she attended the art school attached to the Academy of Fine Arts until 1986. She was accepted as a student at the Academy itself, and graduated from the Graphics Department in 1992.

From 1989 she has had work accepted by several different publishers in St Petersburg and now has a very successful career as a book illustrator. She has recently completed the design and illustration of a Russian edition of Lewis Carroll’s own young children’s version of Alice in Wonderland.

In 1995 she became a member of the Russian Union of Artists.

Between 1995 and 1999 she took part in exhibitions in Germany, France and Switzerland. In 1999 her work was awarded the ‘best in show’ prize by visitor ballot at the International New Watercolours Biennale in Germany. Subsequently she had one-woman shows of her watercolours in Germany and St Petersburg. Her work is regularly exhibited in St Petersburg as well as being featured in shows at several galleries in England where it has been very well received. On her last visit to England in 2003 she appeared with examples of her work on the TV arts programme for the Oxford region.

Her work is in private collections in Sweden, Iceland, Finland, Germany Britain and USA, as well as Russia.