Favorite material to work with?
Oil paints. I have never felt more comfortable with any other material.

What themes do you pursue?
Early in my life my father instilled me love to nature by taking me on the weekend trips. We’ve traveled far away from the city to the rivers and forests, distant lakes. I was amused by the horizon, watching it mystic mirages, and somehow felt attachment to this beautiful scenery. Nature is religion thing to me,  it has nothing to do with the ordinary, always is mysterious and full of secrets, and is a spiritual place. So everything that I have ever come up with has it origins there. But for me it wasn’t enough – simply to copy what you’ve see.

Everything should be viewed through the prism of imagination, and it should stay above all other rules of artistic logic. For instance, I was thinking about what the world might look like if I was an alien being. Would I see it as a human or it would be something completely different? In the result turned very experimental series of works called “Extraterrestrial Artifact”.

I love to be in the middle of nowhere, lying alone in the field, listening to silence and observing the early morning fog that surround me. And when I’m coming home I’m trying to apply those glimpses of memory on canvas. The series called “Mystic Origin” is a real successor of my early life experiences and logical continuance of my thoughts about nature and how the human integrates in it. It has more mystic atmosphere that everything I’ve created before.

“Red Planet” is available for sale at Saatchi Online Original: $2,145.00 Prints Start At: $22.00

Though I don’t consider myself religious in its traditional way, I find everything related to it extremely interesting to me. My recent efforts are a series of works that deals with psychological aspect of a human being: religion and beliefs, love and sex, psychedelic experiences. It has a little bit different approach, more personal touch.

I believe dreaming and imagining are very important parts of my life, because the ultimate goal of an artist is transforming his vision to the viewer, making the viewer empathize it with the artist. When I paint, mind is revealing something by creating the worlds that don’t exist. And what could be more interesting than the discovering new worlds.

How many years as an artist?
I’ve drawn from childhood, but there was a long (10 years) pause. I am glad to be back after such a long period. Since then I haven’t stopped.

Sketchbook? Do you use one? What type?
Over past years I’ve made (mostly ink on paper) a big amount of drawings, some of them turned out are fully completed graphic works, and others are just very minimalistic and they are good as they are (in its simplicity). They shouldn’t necessarily become a large-scale work. Actually very little from my sketches eventually made its way into the canvas and if it did – only partially. I think painting should walk through a sort of evolution in a real time. It’s a child that born from symbiosis of feeling and spirit. Preconceived idea often simply kills this free transformation. I don’t really know in what direction it will go. The process is largely-intuitive – a voyage of discovery – which is how I like it.

Where is your studio?
I use a little corner in my room as a workplace… unfortunately. I wish I could have something better.

Why do you make art?
I like process of constant search, bringing elusive thoughts to the light – experimenting and mixing things.

Art school or self-taught?
I studied at the art school for children and later at the Arts College (Grafic Arts program).

Prefer to work with music or in silence?
I listen to music when I can. I wish I could have more heads to listen different records at the same time.

iTunes, spotify, records?
Records! Only quality music! No mp3!

Favorite sound?
An ambient electronics music, especially from mid 80′s.

What’s around the corner from your place?
A valley with sounds of birds. It’s often under the heavy fog in the morning. One of my  favorite inspiration places.

Who are your favorite writers?
Nikolai Berdyaev, Vladimir Solovyov, Alexander Belyayev, Arkady and Boris Strugatsky.

If you couldn’t be an artist, what would you do?
I probably would be a musician. A multi-instrumentalist.

“In The Quiet Stream” is available for sale at Saatchi Online Original: $2,002.00 Prints: $22.00.

Would you rather be able to make a living as an artist now or become famous after you die?
It’s quite obvious; I would like to make living as an artist now. Though there is nothing wrong with the second statement too.

What do you collect?
My favorite music records, running out of place already…

Use anything other than paint?
I recall I have used degreaser for my work “Randevu”. Very stinky stuff… Onetime experiment.

Representational or Surreal
Surreal with elements of abstract.

Is painting dead?
It’s not. No computer software can compare to this living and breathing handmade product.

Painting Inside or Outside?
Inside. I love comfortable warm place to work in.