Pre-school
first materials
3 – 5yearsAn hour of touching, mixing, tearing, printing. Paper, colour, clay. Nothing has to become a picture. Spilled water is part of life.

An hour of touching, mixing, tearing, printing. Paper, colour, clay. Nothing has to become a picture. Spilled water is part of life.
Weekly blocks, never more than seven children. Materials laid out, a short conversation, then ninety minutes of calm work: drawing, watercolour, texture, clay. We don't correct mistakes — they are part of the path.
An evening at the long table or at an easel. Come with a painting in mind, or simply to explore the materials. Guidance is there, but never imposing: no skill assumed, no result expected. The pace is yours.
Easels, after an afternoon
Oil pastel, mid-drawing
Books, and a watercolourAbout the space
Malevala is a single, quiet room in a courtyard building in Berlin-Pankow. Tall windows, a long wooden table, drawers of graphite, watercolour, paper, fabric, clay. Maria's own studio practice happens in the same room as the teaching — the two are not separate.
Groups are deliberately small — five to seven people — so every piece of work gets the attention it needs. Nobody has to begin with a plan. We follow the material, change direction halfway, and the work takes as long as it needs.
Slowly, sincerely, without pressure.








Maria, in studioArt is a way of thinking and of being in contact with the world.
Visual artist and educator. Born and trained in St. Petersburg — graphic design at university, four years of evening drawing classes at the Academy of Arts, and ten years in the studio of watercolourist Viktor Zhadanov. I have lived and worked in Berlin since 2019.
At Malevala my studio practice and my teaching live under one roof. I believe in slow processes, in material that leads the way, and in art as a way of thinking, sensing and being in contact with the world.

Block aus 6 Terminen für Kinder von 3–6 Jahren
Ein Gerüst ist das, worauf alles ruht, und doch bleibt es oft unbemerkt. Im November zeigen es uns die Bäume, wenn sie ihre Blätter verlieren. Auch Häuser und Brücken haben eins, und wir selbst tragen eins in uns.
In diesem Block geht es mehr ums Körperliche: um Gewicht, Gleichgewicht und das, was eine Form hält. Wir bauen, biegen, belasten und prüfen, was hält und was umfällt. Wir arbeiten nicht nur auf dem Blatt, sondern auch im Raum.
Nach jedem Treffen bleibt etwas, das von selbst steht, seine Form hält oder zeigt, wie es gebaut ist.
Termine