UNCONQUERED Print

20 years of a successful career in IT and Finance, getting tired of coding, figures and reports, I discovered the freedom and therapy of Art. The last time I did an oblique cat drawing back at primary school…mmm *** years ago, it was highly criticized by our classic teacher. Those classes somehow turned me away and made me believe that both my arms were left-handed and growing in the wrong direction. However, I loved staring for hours at the pictures from a variety of art magazines belonging to my architect-mom… There was another world in there, so different, so mystical to my Sovietic surroundings. I spent a few years taming the piano and going through the Russian classic books. Tolstoi, Tourgueniev, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and other genius compatriots developed my emotion of a “soul in pain”, specific and well known for Russians. Well years later, by chance of my fate, after surviving through the tough times of perestroika and deficit, ambitious and hard work, I found myself in the miraculous region of the Alps, integrating into Swiss and French cultures, breathing in the fresh mountain air. It was there, that I realised my need to express everything that has been stacked and packed inside for too long, I have a beautiful opportunity to expose and reveal. In one year I created over one hundred art works in different styles and techniques. I followed multiple online courses and classes in person with well-known artists in Russia, Switzerland, Italy, Germany and France. I went for art-travel vacations all around Europe and I visited every possible museum or exhibition around to find inspiration and learn from the masters. I tried aquarelle and drawing, classical multilayers and “alla prima”, oil and acrylic, grattage and blinking interior style. Over the past few months however, I developed the look of my own style and vision. My favourite friend for now is a palette knife, although I keep learning and trying all trends and instruments. I enjoy volume and movement, provocative brightness and contrasts. Yes, my drawing is not academic and it shouldn’t be because still life is actually alive and a boat is following the wind and even the sunshine is shivering and jingling. Objects have no precise shape because they are being born and changing, communicating, dying and dissolving into nature. I express my dreams, my mood, my interpretations and fantasies on the subject, its character, as I would like to see it.