Webcams and Butterflies Print

At the heart of my work is a desire to create a better,more harmonious reality while giving the viewer a fresh perspective into the ordinary. Over the course of my career, my artwork has gone through several transformations both stylistically and thematically. From the still lifes and landscapes that I painted as a child, I moved on to theatrical compositions of clowns and masks, then to abstract expressionism and to De Stijl, and finally back to realism. As I have became older and more patient, I have wanted to focus more on the quality rather than the quantity of my work. It is now my sole intention is to create beautiful, carefully crafted objects of art that can be treasured and admired for years. I choose to work in the tradition of the Great Masters because their work is characterised by extreme technical skill and boundless beauty, which has preserved this style’s relevance and veneration through the centuries. Growing up in St Petersburg, Russia provided exposure to the classical arts that has served as a foundation for the lifelong passion I have for painting and drawing. Reflected in my paintings is my strong appreciation for the Renaissance period due to the fact that, while this era’s style appears to strive for accurate depiction, it actually subscribes to a very particular aesthetic that emphasises harmony and beauty over realism. I am further inspired by the seventeenth century Dutch painters who too painted in a ‘realistic’ style that was not at all realistic in the strictest sense of the word. For example, Vermeer frequently modified the scale and the shape of objects and even the fall of shadows for compositional or thematic reasons. My artwork takes a long time to complete because I adhere to the traditional Renaissance oil painting techniques; layering translucent glazes to achieve depth and to make the painting more luminous. I enjoy painting from life, but often refer to photographs as they provide a consistent reference for light and shadow. While I enjoy working on traditional themes, in my latest Nature and Technology series of still lifes, I want to question our coexistence with nature; to bring a touch of modernity into the composition with a bit of playfulness and a touch of double meaning. Through this I aim to break the untold rule that a still life must consist of simply fruits, vegetables, and flowers.