How Artist Anna’s Abstract Art Captures meaningful moments and emotions

Anna Collevecchio is a talented painter who grew up in an artist family in St. Petersburg, Russia. Surrounded by creativity from a young age, she fell in love with painting while working in her mother’s studio. In this interview, Anna talks about moving to the U.S. in 2016 and how this change sparked her interest in experimenting with new themes and materials. Inspired by both early Christian art and modern styles, she developed a unique approach to painting that she calls “Temporal Psychoexpression.” This process involves capturing brief, meaningful moments and emotions through rhythmic brushstrokes and the use of gold leaf to add a special glow to her work. She also opens up on her fascination with the idea of Time and how it slips away from us and yet shapes our lives.

Anna Collevecchio was born and raised in St. Petersburg, Russia, where she grew up assisting her mother, a renowned cityscape impressionistic painter, in her studio. This early exposure to art sparked her inclination towards graphic art and fostered her connection with the art world. She earned a BA in graphic arts and a PhD in communication studies and has spent her life creating visual stories for brands and personalities. While predominantly focused on graphic arts, she continued painting and curated several art shows in both Russia and the USA. For her, fine art remains an essential source of inspiration and a platform for creative experimentation. Her curiosity led her to explore early Christian art, specifically icons and frescoes with gilding elements. She uses watercolors, stucco, and gesso mixtures to replicate the matte effect of frescoes, finishing her work with gold leaf to imbue each painting with a glowing halo effect as it reflects off the walls.

Anna Collevecchio’s work style is temporal psychoexpressionism, capturing the remnants of fleeting feelings one experiences in evocative places. Living close to New York City, she draws inspiration for her most recent work from the city’s vibes. She explores and records the intersections of tradition and innovation by applying traditional mediums to modern abstract visual concepts. Her art merges past, present, and future in one moment in an attempt to capture the feeling of absolute timelessness. Anna finds that megalopolises like New York invert, twist, grind, and mix eras of time together like layers of paint, producing unexpected results. Ultimately, she aims for her art to encourage viewers to experience every moment of their lives with full awareness, recognizing that everything surrounding them is only temporary.

1. What inspired you to become an artist?

My family is very creative: my mother is a famous Russian cityscape painter, my grandmother was a Director of an Art School, I grew up surrounded by art and people talking about art. Always wanted to be an artist of some kind!

With my art, I aim to pin it down and box up a minuscule portion of a particular Moment that happened in a particular Place. And anyone is allowed to own it.

_{Anna Collevecchio}

2. What is your creative process like from start to finish?

My process is a ritual, I call it Temporal Psychoexpression: – Whenever I experience a strong emotion, I find a rhythm to watch unfold — like grass bending in the wind, water ripples running from a boat, dust circling in the summer air, or clouds merging and glowing from the sun. Rhythms mark the time, tap-tap-tap, but there’s no interpretation, no judgment, just a simple registration of the moment that has passed. – I observe and make a mental imprint of the rhythm, soak in the colors, sounds, smells, and air textures — everything that embodies that environment, in that particular moment. – I channel these imprints in my studio: while pouring the sparkling paste-based primer and guiding the way it floods the surface of the board or canvas, while mixing and layering watercolors, and, finally, while pecking the artwork with hundreds of small strokes, using a brush or an acrylic marker. Using watercolors and a self-made spackling paste-based primer, I mimic the timeless allure of frescoes in my pieces, and then cover the surface with short brush or marker strokes, which I count in the process – the total count of strokes is often referenced in the title. I allow my hand to guide me and as a result, the patterns of the strokes are absolutely unique like human fingerprints. Each artwork embodies a memorable emotional moment tied to a specific location, usually referenced in its title as well. I often embellish the sides of my paintings with gold leaf, generating a radiant halo effect when exhibited.

3. Where do you find inspiration for your artwork?

I draw a lot of inspiration from the places I visit. But it’s not just the physical space, it’s always a combination of the location, my mental state, the time of the day/year, the smells and the sounds I experience there.

4. Can you tell us about a particular piece of art that holds special meaning for you?

Strawberry fields series: it’s an imprint of some very sweet memories from the time I just met my husband. In a way it’s an elegy of falling in love, the name is referencing the place in the Central Park in New York city where we spent a lot of time just laying on the grass watching sunset in the beginning of our relationships.

I was always terrified of the power Time has over human minds and bodies. We don’t own Time, we don’t know how much Time we’ll have, and we don’t know what kind of rhythm it will play on our souls

_{Anna Collevecchio}

5. How do you handle creative blocks or periods of low inspiration?

I take breaks. I know that I can’t work if I am tired, my “channelling” is blocked. Inspiration always comes back after a good night sleep, trip to a spa and a long walk along the Hudson river.

From her beginnings in Russia to developing new techniques in the U.S., Anna Collevecchio’s story shows how art can capture and hold onto the moments that make up our lives. Her paintings, deeply personal yet relatable, encourage us to think about our own experiences and how time shapes them. By sharing her story and creative approach, we gain a better understanding of her work and the feelings it conveys. To learn more about Anna, visit the links below.