“I paint to see

to survive

and to resist the blindness within and around”

Elena Taviani is an Italian-born artist living and working in Cape Verde, where her family, daily life, and surroundings deeply shape her practice. Moving between geographies and disciplines—as an architect, PhD researcher in urban studies, mother, teacher, and visual artist—her art grows as a space where the personal and the universal meet. Although art has always been part of her life, she began painting in earnest only in 2022 after the birth of her second child and the definitive move to Cape Verde, initially as a form of self-care and a way to process her inner transformations, and gradually as her preferred means of communication.

Today, working from her home studio, she employs acrylics, watercolors, gouache, and oils, along with natural elements. Her palette is both earthy and vibrant: ochres and browns root her work to the land, while vital eruptions of green, red, and yellow bring energy. Deep blues open space for the symbolic, and black runs through her pieces like a score of visual music—not closing, but structuring.

Each painting begins with a spark: a vision, an emotion, a fragment of memory, or simply the desire to play with shapes , colors and meanings. Collaboration is central in her process—whether with her partner in art and life (a multifaceted artist for himself) or through the playful inspiration of their children and their drawings. A signature detail in her work is the use of dots. They are both the final seal of an artwork and a playful engagement with its surface. These “puntini” rhythmically punctuate the canvas, animating the visual field and marking the painting with her unmistakable imprint.

At the heart of her practice lies a search for connection and communication: with nature, with inner life, and with others. Painting for her is both a celebration and an act of resistance—against the blindness that makes us forget our own inner worlds, and against the indifference toward the fragile yet majestic beauty of the world we inhabit.