Shadow. Orange Roofs: Mediterranean Balcony Oil Artwork, 2026

Natalia Emelianova  

Natalia is a contemporary artist working primarily with oil painting. She was born in Moscow in 1983 and has been living and working in Sceaux, France, since 2022.

As Natalia is raising a daughter, her artistic practice often turns toward intimate subjects: interiors, still lifes, and simple everyday objects.

She enjoys observing daily life, architecture, nature, and the changing seasons, paying close attention to subtle transformations in the world around her. She is particularly interested in how an interior point of view alters the perception of exterior space.

Natalia chooses oil paint as her main medium for its plasticity, richness, wide color range, and the possibility of working in layers, allowing her works to gain texture and depth.

Her most recent series, “Les garde-corps", can be literally translated as “to protect the body." The series was inspired by Natalia's love for Parisian architecture and her fascination with buildings and their railings. In these works, the viewpoint is always situated in a safe interior space, looking out onto the street. Natalia reflects on the dual nature of French garde-corps: made of cold, rigid metal, they are nevertheless designed to protect from falling, while also being remarkably beautiful, fluid, and ornamental. The series explores how a purely utilitarian object can make the surrounding world slightly more beautiful.