Born and raised in the Netherlands, Elena started drawing as soon as she could hold a pencil and never stopped; if there was a piece of paper in front of her she couldn’t help but draw. Surrounded by world-class museums in her native country, she was fascinated by the works of the old masters, especially Rembrandt and Johannes Vermeer. Elena moved to California at the age of eighteen, and studied acting, worked as a make-up artist and in the fitness industry as a trainer and model. She never stopped drawing and painting though and, mostly self-taught, continued to develop her skills over the years. After getting married and moving to Miami she continued to paint while raising a family and took some art classes periodically but didn’t get serious about pursuing it as a career until her children were a little older. Now she paints full-time.
My work is a study of the feminine psyche, suspended between the realms of realism and the surreal. I paint with oil because it breathes. It allows for depth, for vulnerability, for time to steep and settle—qualities I find essential when translating the complexity of womanhood onto canvas.
Each figure I create is a vessel of duality: strength and softness, clarity and mystery, body and spirit. Nature or the abstract often intervene, reminding us that identity is not fixed, but fluid and porous. These elements do not obscure; they reveal. They mirror the inner life that is often unseen but deeply felt.
The gaze in my portraits is intentional—direct yet tender—inviting the viewer into a moment of stillness and introspection. My works are a quiet rebellion against oversimplification. It is an ode to nuance, to emotion as a valid archive, to beauty not as perfection but as presence.
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