Why do it?

The question is that there is so much information out there so why add to it. Why have yet another blog or even try to create art in the first place. We are already struggling to pick through and digest all the stuff in our emails, web-browsing and other sources as well as having plenty of amazing art to look at. Well... I can not say that I will become a great artist or my writing is so gripping you can't live without it. I promise you though that you will get something out of it. I think that you will find it interesting to experience art making with me.

It has started a while ago, I guess, with my taking of photography. Then I felt confined in that medium and wanted to try another approach. I took painting thinking that I would be doing mixed media work. Afterward when I took a few lessons in abstract art I was hooked!



"Seeing the wood for the trees", 36' x 48'





"Looking Out", 38' x 38'

I never thought I could paint. It was such an exhilarating discovery. I was always an art lover but never an artist. Only in my early childhood I remember enjoying drawing and painting but later on even though my critics were sometimes complimentary about my efforts I gave up. I was embarrassed that I could not draw as well as I would have liked. Somehow I never articulated my feelings so no one ever bothered to teach me. That never stopped me enjoying the art of others and I spent a lot of long hours in galleries and museums both in Moscow and during my extensive travels afterwards.

My trials in abstract painting have led me to wanting to draw. This time I was better at following my heart so I have signed up for a basic drawing course. I have to report that to my astonishment the first ever still life that I did looked like the subjects on the table. Everything was recognisable and even proportions looked almost true!Here it is for your judgment:




My skills improved through those lessons but I still did not feel that it was good enough and I wanted to do more. Then after taking a few other painting classes I was recommended a book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" which I have been reading during the last couple of days. Here are a few exercises that I did from it.







I know that my drawings still look like a student's but it's not bad from a non-existent skill a few months ago. I always thought that somehow the painters were born with the skill of drawing and they never had to really work at it. Well looking at some studies of Degas and Van Gogh and reading more about them I have been proved wrong. They really studied a lot and it didn't just come to them. I am far from comparing myself to those masters. What I really am trying to say that I am looking forward to my journey in creating art and hope that you will share it with me.