Education
1982-1984 College of Fine Art, Russia ( majoring in Art Design)
1987-1991 Ilya Repin St.Petersburg State Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, St. Petersburg Russia ( Concentrating in Russian Realist Painting)
1998-Present Inducted into the United Scenic Artist Local 829, New York, NY ( Scenic Artist)
Artist Statement
I consider myself a “plein air” landscape artist with my work unified from this special and original dialogue that I have with nature. I have always been driven and fascinated with the rural environment. From scouting and searching the perfect location for my painting, to the rush of adrenaline when the weather would shift, I had not stopped painting the outdoors for the past thirty years.
Nature is constantly in our lives. It is the begging of everything. Nature is what stimulates us toward the positive, even if we don’t know it. My paintings allow for the viewer to image themselves in that place. I want to capture not only the physical qualities of the scene, but the mood and complete ambience that, that specific location gives off.
From an early age I had always been interested in the arts. Growing up in a small town in Kazakhstan Russian, I had developed a love for painting at an early age. While my peers had prom on their mind, I was on my way to the College of Fine Art in central Russia, which I completed two years later with a degree in Art Design. Following my graduation I had began to exhibit locally.
I followed my passion for the Fine Arts at the St. Petersburg Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, named after Ilya Repin, concentrating on Russian Realism for the next four years. In 1996, my family and I took the opportunity to unite with family members in America. By moving to New York City, life was giving me new opportunities. I became a Scenic Artist for United Scenic Artists Union, working for movies and T. V. Shows. Though I commute daily in the urban-ness of the city, I am constantly thinking about the rural-ness that I paint in. The nature has always been my calling. I find that it is completely inescapable. My family currently resides in Syracuse, NY where I have become surrounded by the nature that I have always searched for. I wish for my work to represent a reminder that we should not forget nature, but cherish the moments that we might take for granted.
