Tatiana Ivanova

Tatiana Ivanova was born in Leningrad (St-Petersburg now). She started painting in senior high school. After finishing high school, she enrolled in an art course at the St. Petersburg Art Academy, and then the Department of Painting and Graphic. Art of St Petersburg State Pedagogical University. Her graduation thesis was on painting.

Tatiana joined "Russian Vityaz" as an intern in 1992. Her inordinate painting talent and organizational skills were immediately noted. A hard worker and excellent team manager, Tatiana took only two years to become Assistant Director.

Tatiana Ivanova currently manages all production at "Russian Vityaz". She supervises several art teams, searches for and recruits new talent, helps new employees master tin miniature painting techniques and overcome their fear of complex know how. The seeming simplicity of tin miniature painting is deceptive, especially if your prior experience was in varnish painting. Ninety percent of professional artists deciding to try it, fail to switch from flat surface to three dimensional painting. Add 90% of those who leave before they even try, and you will easily calculate that of a hundred newcomers, only one stays. Now think of what it takes to put a team together. "Russian Vityaz" receives thousands of applicants, each with his or her own life and problems. To understand each applicant, the chief artist has to be a savvy psychologist as well as a formidable painter. Imagine how hard it is to tell someone you have invested in emotionally: "Sorry, you are not right for this job".

So much for new entrants, but what about accomplished artists. A word class artist is always in the swing of things, and constantly stressed out. Artists need support, and Tatiana is always there to provide it.

In addition, there is never any dearth of routine everyday work, such as pick up and delivery of molds, painting quality assurance, and making sure that all artists are supplied with what they need. This brief employee profile cannot possible cover it all: the endless arguments with sculptors about the anatomy and veracity of postures, arguments with the management about the where to take the company next, and so on and so forth.

It is positively amazing how this woman has been able to cope with so many duties and challenges for so many years.

Tatiana's own works have won her six prizes at international exhibitions in the United States and France. She won her last Gold Medal for painting a 120 mm Cardinal Richelieu replica in Chicago in October 2001. In fact, every artist and sculptor in our studio partly owes his on her awards and prizes to Tatiana.

Tatiana likes to spend her free time at her dacha, there she grows exotic plants. She also reads a lot and likes to spend time with her friends. She usually spends her vacations by the sea, somewhere nice and warm, like Egypt, the cradle of human civilization.