Sebastian and Cleopatra Painting

Born in 1976. Lives and works in Riga. Member of the Union of Latvian Artists. I'm interested in realistic painting, trying to reveal the inner nature of objects. In my artwork, the main objects of interest are light and shade and their juxtaposition that creates powerful dramatic contrast revealing the corporeal structure of the painted objects. Having a deep insight into the materiality of the painted objects helps me approach the metaphysical nature of objects - instead of portraying the figures or objects I am recreating them in another reality, the plane of canvas. The recreated objects are as real as the ones that have been source of inspiration. Illuminated by powerful light, they emerge, for an instant, from darkness that symbolizes nonexistence, the fundamental source of everything. Static from the outside yet permeated with tension, the mythological figures or Biblical archetypes seem to be in a different spacetime, briefly appearing to the viewer, in a glance of light, and instantly disappearing in all-embracing darkness.