"FISH" Drawing

- What was your first experience with/discovery of art? What made you want to become an artist?

I decided to become an artist when I was 10 years old. I thought it was the best way to express your fantasies. I loved to read fairy tales, and my fantasy seethed.
- What was your first experience with/discovery of art? What made you want to become an artist?

At the age of 10, I began to study in the studio, in a drawing circle. And there I realized that you need to know a lot and be able to be an artist. My first experience - we went to the park and memorized. Then, in the studio, we drew our impressions of the winter park.
- Are there any key themes, messages or theories behind your work?
I work in the style of fantastic realism and classical realism.

- Could you tell us a bit about your artistic approach? (Style, medium and specific techniques.)
I work with structures, the perspective in my paintings is most often built by overlaying objects.

- Please write a personal quote/sentence that best represents you as an artist (in your own words, max. 30 words.)
The artist expresses the soul of humanity. Art helps to feel life.
- Are there any key themes, messages or theories behind your work?
I want to show that the world is beautiful and infinitely diverse.

Aibek Begalin was born in 1963 in Astana, Kazakhstan. In 1989 he graduated from V. Surikov Moscow State Academy Art Institute with a Master of Fine Arts.
Now he lives and works in Los-Angeles, California, USA.
He has had exhibitions in Astana, Moscow, Cairo (Egypt), Brussels (Belgium), Worpswede (Germany), and Zhangzhou (China). In 2001 he had made a portrait for Pope John Paul II. In 2014 he had made a portrait of Prince Rainier III for Prince of Monaco Albert II. His paintings were exhibited at the European Parliament in Brussels in 2015.
Aibek Begalin received the Order of Honor of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
He is a member of the Kazakhstan Academy of Arts and was awarded a diploma of the Russian Academy of Arts. He is an honorary professor of the East International College of Chinа.
Aibek Begalin created several cycles of paintings: "Apocalypse" (30 finely detailed paintings, 7 of these paintings are presented in the Moscow Museum "Ark of the New Testament"), "Time" and "My Kazakhstan". He illustrated the novel "The Scaffold" by Ch. Aitmatov and the stories "Early Cranes", "Spotted Dog Running on Seashore" (edited by "Detlit", Moscow).