About me

I spent my childhood and youth in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski, where I finished secondary school and art school. Thanks to my parents, who took a great interest in tourism, I was able to visit many interesting places in this beautiful land. The Kamchatka Peninsula, lapped by the Pacific Ocean, is the land of volcanoes and geysers, ice-cold mountain streams and thermal springs, the land of a long winter, an empire of rare plants and animals. The love of this rigorous and unique land has stayed in my heart forever and can be seen in my poetry and pictures.

I am grateful to my first teachers Y. E. Koldayev and P. K. Derevyanko, who have awoken the artist within me and have taught me many mysteries of this trade.

In 1988 I entered the applied art faculty of the Moscow Textile Academy. Two years of hard work forewent it.

My stay and my study in Moscow were the period of my formation as a creative personality. The capital gave me an opportunity to join to the world of exhibitions, museums, theatres, to see original pictures by famous painters and to study the history of art using not only books.

I had wonderful teachers: I. P. Godunova, N. P. Beschastnov, A.P. Pushkarev, L.P. Yermolayeva and many others. But I especially liked lectures on the history of art, which were given by the arts critic and genius of her trade, Mercurova Inessa. She spoke about famous masterpieces and their creators figuratively and with inspiration and guided the students through the halls of the Hermitage of St Petersburg, where she knew every corner, every picture and the history of its creation.

During my study I took part in several student exhibitions. Furthermore, at this time I painted traditional works of art like Easter eggs and «matreshka»'s. It was a very useful experience and I can say with pride, that my work now decorates many houses worldwide from Japan to Mexico.

I graduated from the Academy with honour and for some years afterwards I worked on the creation of drafts for fabrics, which were on sale in New York to various textile factories in the USA. I take pride in two works of mine, the drafts of silk kerchiefs, which the famous American couturier Bill Blass purchased for one of his collections. At the same time as this work, I practised silk-painting, mostly for wall panels.

From 1997 until 1999 I worked as a senior designer in the gallery of French fabrics "Bagatelle" in Moscow , where I gained new experience in the field of textile design for an interior. This allowed me to begin independent professional activity in the same field from the end of 1999. I have realized about 20 projects of design of apartments and private houses in and around Moscow.

Our family has been living in Switzerland since 2001. Here we have had the opportunity to travel a lot in the country and abroad.

In Switzerland I especially like springtime, when valleys are in flower and snow still lies in the mountains… the fabulous contrasts! I always admire the Alps and mountain lakes. I like to stroll about the ancient medieval streets of the cities. The originality and diversity of European centres of art amazes me - imperial Vienna, medieval Venice, antique Rome, Paris, full of architectural contrasts. I often carry my impressions of the trips onto canvas and paper.

Besides landscape, an other direction of my creative work is the portrait. It is very important for me to convey not only similarity of appearance, but also a personality. I like very much to work on children's portraits, which I mostly paint in water-colours. These reflect especially brightly the softness and freshness of a children's skin and the expressiveness of a glance. In spite of the difficulties, which a painter faces in a work with water colours (this technique doesn't allow corrections), it has been interesting for me since studentship.

Developing every next theme, I try to give my most completed vision of the world, to look at it in a new fashion and to not be limited only by blind imitation.

Using different methods of painting and graphic arts is interesting to me. Water colours, acrylic, pastel crayons, ink, pencil... . The various interpretations of the same subject is interesting too, be it a flower, a landscape or abstract composition.

I often experiment, I learn from nature and from well-known painters. My favourite artists are Serov, Repin, Cézanne, Gauguin, Klimt. I like very much pictures by watercolorists Cheng-Khee Chee and Sergey Andriyaka.

My inspiration comes not only from nature, but also from music, poetry, literature and theatre.