Still Life with Drinking-Horn Painting

Original oil paintings on linen by Alexey Golovin. On any question you may turn to the painter Alexey Golovin: ________________________________________ The most important thing in painting for me is beauty. You can choose an awful subject, a tragedy, but you must try to paint a picture plastically beautiful and expressive. This is quite a difficult problem. But the more difficult the problem is, the more interesting it is to solve it. The constant source of inspiration is Greek mythology. It offers a huge number of subjects for an artist. In history of arts there are many works on the themes of myths and legends. Artists of different countries and epochs addressed these subjects in their creative work. I admire paintings of old masters. They contain everything that I like in painting and that induce me to create. When selecting a classical subject for a picture, I try to make a new, modern interpretation. But at the same time I do not decline traditional manner and technique of painting. As soon as an idea for a picture arises, the search of a new composition begins. It is important to take into account the picture size and to find the most expressive plastic solution for it. It is only when I understand the solution, that I start painting a picture. Sometimes an idea of a picture comes quickly, and sometimes not. But the creative search is an interesting and exciting thing for me. I do not use factory-made canvases available in shops for my pictures. I take a linen cloth and ground it myself. It takes some extra time, but only this way I am sure in integrity of my picture. Besides figurative pictures, it is interesting for me to work with a still life, a portrait, a landscape, and sometimes to make stained-glass windows and wall-paintings. I think that it is boring to lock myself in one genre. When working at a picture, I do not hurry, I enjoy working. When one does what he wants, he feels joy from creative activity. I was happy to learn painting from many wonderful Russian artists. I always remember my teachers with gratitude. I consider my father the main teacher, thanks to whom I have chosen the way of an artist.