Maryleen Schiltkamp Diaghilev Center of Arts

Maryleen Schiltkamp made a recent début this spring at the Diaghilev Center of Arts, Blue Hall in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Her focus was on the "firebird" a magical bird that occurs in ancient Greek and Egyptian myths whose fiery death and rebirth was to resemble the cycles of the sun. The Phoenix was believed to live for many centuries after which it finally burns itself to ashes on an altar of fire from which a new phoenix rose.

The cycles of the sun are all things in common, a circulatory beginning and ending and beginning. The spirit in all things works a cycle of rekindling after many successions of rising and falling.

Schiltkamp is an international graphic artist whose oil paintings combine classical order with colorful temperament, and a wide reference to the continuity of tradition in art. Maryleen was born in Curacao, Netherlands Antilles in 1959.

At present Maryleen lives and maintains a studio in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and in St. Petersburg, Russia.

For more information e-mail Carole at atelierart@aol.com .

"Firebird", 2006, Oil on Canvas (In a private collection in Russia)

Maryleen's Russian paintings can be divided in works presenting theme's from Russian folktales, legends and oriental motifs, and works in which the Russian landscape is the subject, as in 'Landscape of Miracle', ' Russian Landscape' and 'Blue Forest'. Oriental motifs abound in this exhibition, especially in 'Polovtsian Dances', 'Scheherazade' and 'Orientalism'. These theatrical paintings have a strong connection with Russian operas and ballets of the late 19th and early 20th century. Maryleen's extraordinarily original artwork and impressive technique show her great ability and interest to work on theatrical productions as stage-designer/artist for the opera and ballet. The musical contents inspired the artist to make a brilliant statement about the Eurasian roots of Russia's identity in her essay 'Polovtsian Dances'.

In several paintings based on folktales and legends, the artist was inspired by Ivan Bilibin's sketches in1929 for the operas 'The Tale of Tsar Saltan' and 'The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia' by Rimsky-Korsakov. Ivan Bilibin (1876-1942) was a remarkable artist who was drawn to the remoteness of the wilderness of Old Russia that gave rise to these legends. He worked as an illustrator of fairy tale books in which he showed a strong sense of traditional design, fantasy, folklore and historical and geographical authenticity. In later years, he applied his vision to sets and costumes of Russian operas. Other artists like Victor Vasnetsov, Ilya Repin and Vasily Surikov, with their narrative style of folk themes and epic history - the amazing seascape painter Ivan Aivazovsky - the 'Peredvizniki' (The Wanderers), a group of realist painters formed in 1890 by nationalist critic Vladimir Stasov, including Repin, Savrasov, Levitan, Polenov, Kundji, Ghe - and the artists related to Diaghilev's 'Mir Iskusstva': Nikolai Roerich, Natalia Goncharova, Alexander Benois and Leon Bakst, with his costume designs for Stravinsky's Firebird, Maryleen Schiltkamp considers part of her artistic family.

I know the Firebird lived in Arabia near a cool well, where each morning it bathed and sang an alluring song. Incense, cinnamon and myrrh made up its meal. There was one Firebird in the world, and it could live for centuries until it felt the time had come. The Firebird would then build a high nest on top of a palm or oak tree. There the bird's wings burst into flames to become an altar of fire. Out of the smoldering ashes a new, fledgling Firebird arises. After it gains strength and tests its wings, the new Firebird gathers up the ashes of its former self. It keeps them inside an egg made of myrrh, and in sovereign flight brings it to the Temple of the Sun in Heliopolis, Egypt, where it places the egg on the altar of sun god Ra. The Firebird is now free to return to the East and begin its enchanting centuries of new life.