In the beginning Painting

I was born in Lithuania in the western part of the country in Tauragė town, 1968. There I spent my childhood and my school years. Lived in different cities and countries in Europe. For the last two years, I've been living between London (UK) and Kaunas (Lithuania). Most of my time spent in Lithuania I dedicate to creation. Have I come from nowhere? Absolutely not. Everybody receives something from somewhere first. Than digests it and produces something new or something of new quality. The same happened to me. From my childhood, I was strongly inspired by visual arts. The drawing was my favourite engagement. I remember my first time visiting St. Peter and St. Paul’s church in Vilnius. I was overwhelmed by its incredible beauty: pictures, sculptures, interior decorations and its architecture itself. I have always had a strong inclination towards so-called non-functional but beautiful stuff: woodcarvings and wooden masks, stained-glass windows in churches, drawings and paintings, archaeological artefacts, fairy-tales. And nature itself: forests, lakes and rivers and of course twilight hours. I still love it. The most beautiful time of the day, magic time. My thirst for the arts was fed by visiting museums and exhibitions, studying art books, etc. I have great admiration for so-called “primitive” and pre-historical art. Love pre-colonial African and Australian aboriginal art. Mesoamerican art. Late Gothic. Early Renaissance. Lithuanian wooden sculpture. As it concerns today artists there are too many of my contemporaries that I admire. Let me mention some that have past away: Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Balthus, M.C. Escher, Hundertwasser, Antoni Gaudi, M.K. Čiurlionis, Lionginas Šepka, Kazys Varnelis, Kazimieras Žoromskis, Rimas Jankauskas (Kampas). Every one of the above was going their own way. They enriched the heritage of the world's visual culture.