Cities represent the culmination of human development and endeavor. They are the epicenter of culture, art, science, and commerce and for the visual artist, they provide an endless challenge to depict its architecture, its moods, its secrets, and especially its unique inhabitants. Elena Bond’s paintings represent her attempt to capture the essence of those qualities in places as diverse from one another as New York City, Miami, Chicago, Washington DC, Anchorage, New Orleans to Paris, Antiqua, Rome, Amsterdam, and Mykonos. Bond often starts with an idea, or a series of ideas involving a particular place or cast of characters, then as she paints her imagination takes over as she creates a unique magical environment that refers to a particular place but really has a life and character of its own.

This happens naturally as Elena Bond becomes immersed in the experience, interpreting the world around her and seeking to capture on canvas or paper not only the visual impression of light and color but other sensory aspects of the scene.  These sensory aspects include warmth or chilliness, sounds, atmosphere, or other specific activities around her subjects as she paints a particular place and time. She uses a bright palette, modeled on her Impressionist ancestor’s method but the excitement in her work comes from the rapid palette knife strokes and energy she gets from her attempts to catch the light as it washes across a scene. The result is a total sensory experience of light, color, and texture that challenges and engages the viewer in a totally new way.