Combining botanical art, animal drawings, rich ornamentation and calligraphy, Svetlana Molodchenko brings the beauty and grace of medieval lighting art to modern day-to-day life.
She lives and works in Yerevan, Armenia. Her work - illumination and calligraphy for private clients, but also book covers, playing cards, postcards, maps, wrapping paper, wallpaper and home decor for publishers and brands.
Her meticulous, hand-painted approach takes time and dedication, but the results are more than worth it. You can feel the concentration and passion put into every touch of her exquisite illustrations. Calligraphy, ornaments, marginalia, alchemy, bestiaries, botanical atlases, heraldic symbols and coats of arms, architecture and engravings along with medieval and Renaissance artists, Joris Hoefnagel, William Morris and Hermann Zapf influenced and motivated her to work.
Svetlana does everything by hand, using traditional materials: paper and parchment, gold leaf and shell gold, paints on natural pigments, silverpoint, brushes and nibs. Svetlana creates wonderfully intricate artwork that transports us back to the Renaissance ages. By building up forms with layer upon layer of watercolor she gives her images a sense of volume and physicality.
She always wanted her works, with all their decorativeness, to be simple and understandable for the viewer, and at the same time exciting. So, looking at the work, the viewer plunges into another world, where past, present and future merge.
Client list
American Greetings, Havas Lynx Group, ARTiSTORY brands, ARK Playing Cards, Earth London, Meshcheryakov Publishing, The Household Words Publishing, Conversation Tree Press, Impression Originale and numerous private commissions.
Participation in exhibitions
2015-2023: “Calligraphic Ball” - an exhibition of calligraphy for students of the school of Evgeny Dobrovinsky. Littera Incognita, Moscow, Russia
2015-2023: Exhibitions dedicated to the Day of Slavic Calligraphy at the School of Historical Calligraphy, Moscow, Russia
2016-2019: Medieval Festival/International Exhibition of Calligraphy and Illuminations in Gubbio, Italy.
2017, September 1 - 10: 6th International Exhibition of Calligraphy at the Contemporary Museum of Calligraphy in Sokolniki, Moscow, Russia
2017, November 23 - December 3: Calligraphy exhibition “Italic-Italik”. Promgraphics Gallery, Moscow, Russia
2018, April 24 - June 7: The exhibition “Primroses. Watercolors and drawings by masters of botanical illustration”, Darwin Museum, Moscow, Russia
2018, November 1 - 11: The exhibition of botanical painting and illustrations “Plants. Myths and Legends”, Moscow, Russia
2018, October 18 - November 18: The exhibition “Botanical Painting. Science and Art”. The School of Watercolors by Sergei Andriyaka, Moscow, Russia
2019, October 1 - 6. "Cyrillic: Yesterday and Today". Exhibition Hall of the St. Petersburg Union of Artists, St. Petersburg, Russia
2020, October 24: International exhibition «United by Calligraphy», organizer: Asociatia Liber la Educatie, Cultura si Sport, Bucharest, Romania
2021, January 9 - 15. Christmas calligraphy exhibition "Welcome Aleph" / Art Behind Glass. Promgraphics Gallery, Moscow, Russia
2021, April 6 - 8. The exhibition "Glagolitic and Cyrillic". Ivanovsky Hall of the Russian State Library, Moscow, Russia
2021, October 7 – 30. The work "Maya" was exhibited at the personal exhibition of the photographer Manon Ouimet as part of the presentation of the book "My Name is Maya". Belfast, Ireland.
2021, December 16 - January 23, 2022. International exhibition “Artist's book. Summing up”. Nikolai Ostrovsky Museum, Moscow, Russia
2022 March 2 - April 4. Exhibition "Margoski". Ryazan, Russia
2023 May 12 - June 12. Exhibition “Red and Black. Graphics, calligraphy, ornament” Organizer: Association of Artists of Botanical Art. Moscow, Russia
Publications
Scripsit Magazine (v. 40, No. 1, May 2018), USA magazine of the Washington Guild of Calligraphers.
Collection. Art and Culture (# 5, October 2018), Journal of the Foundation for Cultural and Educational Programs “The Open Sea”, Moscow, Russia.
Forum / Journal of Letter Exchange (# 42 September 2021) Russian calligraphy - Vera Evstafieva's article about Russian calligraphers.
SecretaArtis (vol. 4, no. 4, 2021). Scientific and methodological journal of the Academy of Fine Arts of Sergei Andriyaka, dedicated to the theory, techniques and technologies of fine arts and methods of their teaching.
https://www.secreta-artis.ru/jour/article/view/215/195