About me
Hi, I'm Jelena Petkovic, the artist that created all the paintings you can see on this site, I hope you enjoyed it. I was inspired by travels from a young age, that taught me that travelling is the most precious experience you can have in life (thank you mum). I believe that seeing all the different countries and cultures opens your mind, educates you and, of course, inspires. I wasn't always painting my travels, but I always enjoy painting people. I guess I've tried to discover life by observing it. Psychology, self-development, spirituality is something that interested me from the beginning, and that's why I want to pain humans. Not humans, to be more precise, I paint women. Why? I could say I don't know, I just started with a natural preference to draw women's body. You could say that is my perspective in life, a woman's perspective. Though in my latest collection, which is all about showing countries, culture, religion through a women portrait, the woman is an important part to the process; wherever I go in the world I can see a situation of the country by looking at women in that country. The confidence of women is the strength of the country; the women's dignity is the dignity of the people; and the freedom of women is how free is the country. I wouldn't say girls run the world like Beyoncé but more that the world is nothing without a woman or a girl like Etta Jones.
Family
I was born in Serbia in the capital city of Belgrade. I was raised in an artistic household so we could say I didn't have to think much about what I wanted to be. I remember our library in the house, it was full of artbooks and I was looking through them with great care to not damage the pages. In the house was my sister, my mother and grandfather and only my sister didn't draw. My mum and grandfather were both architects but painted as a hobby. Appart from that my grandfather was very creative and knew how to make anything. He used to say: ''It's not a question - can we make it, but how can we make it.'' I love that saying. And he did make everything, from building our house to furniture, clothes, shoes, toys, all kinds of objects, he even made a harpoon for underwater fishing from scratch. In his room he had a big table for drawing and every day he was there designing or drawing something new. A system for a machine, the drawing of a person or a portrait of my grandma that passed a few years before I came to this world. So how could I do anything else with a grandpa like that, how could I not draw? So, I did draw, at the age of three I drew all over our stylized sofa. It took me one hour (while my grandpa was asleep) but I did it, I was born to make art.
Travel is an old habit in my family. For generations, my family have traveled and when I was just a kid my mother made sure I understood that travel is an important experience. She said to me: ''Travelling is the only thing worth having money for.'' And when I was young, when I would ask for something expensive my mum would say no but she made sure we always have money to travel.
I spend my childhood in a house full of art books, paintings done by famous Serbian painters; and some done by my mum and grandpa; objects from all around the world, and if that wasn't enough, I was raised by two extremely creative people.
Education
First I went to art high school and then to a faculty of Art and Design at the MegaTrend University of Belgrade. My major was interior design and I was one of the best students. Troughout my studies I had painting classes, and even though I was a great student, painting was more then studying to me. When I was painting I was out of there, it was a meditation to me.
I painted all my life, I had my first exhibition during primary school, I painted in highschool and then at university. I ended up in the exibition of my university presenting the painting that would later form my style.
As I've said previously - I love psychology and this painting is in a way a painting of my mind. Intense colours, used raw directly from the tube was already a part of my style. Geometry allowed me to separate my ideas, actually in this painting it was used as a means to separate the different parts of my self.
Painting as a career
"It's been a long time, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will"
(Sam Cooke - A Change Is Gonna Come)
After my last semester of classes at university I was planning a small trip with my sister, nothing unusual. Just before taking the plane I had a panic attack and I had to leave my sister at the airport, sure that I was ment to die that day. I believe that a part of me did die this day. Now I think happily about that day and see how it shaped my life. The certainty of dying that I experienced taught me that I should not do anything I do not like. The biggest fear I felt that day was never being able to do all the things I hadn't done yet. So I booked a trip to Paris and a ticket to Disneyland. Long story short, I went to Paris, fell in love, moved to Paris, I got a job in an interior design company and... I started feeling like I was wasting my life again. In 2017, after my father died I went to an art shop to buy some markers and started crying in the shop. That was the day when I realised where my peace is. I bought two frames and some paint, the bare minimum, and I went back home and started painting. Two years after I had 20 paintings and I exibited them at CIEM in Paris. And here I am, working on promoting my art and looking for my next exhibition space.