I am drawing, glancing out the window of the fictional world

I have never chosen my own style of painting. Style comes into being precisely when the artist tries to communicate his idea to the viewer with the help of materials and tools. The need to explain leads to the search for the means and techniques that create style. I have always been driven by the desire to know reality more fully through painting, which has contributed to the development of new tools and techniques necessary for this. I live and create in my time, transforming reality in parallel, drawing my ideal from the world around me and my imagination.

Inspiration can come to me suddenly, and by remembering the fragments of impressions that once excited me, I use them in my work. I never know at what exact moment and in what form an impression that fascinated me in the past will come to my mind. Sometimes I think I am combining the "inedible", but something new emerges. The details of the project are not created for the sake of theatricality: it is my way of describing a person, using props to enhance the best qualities of the model.

The portrait is dedicated to my older brother, where he, the main character, is 33 years old. His inner smile touches his lips, his eyes, and even the corners of his eyebrows. The makeup is there to emphasize the charisma and to highlight the gray-green eyes, which without this touch would disappear against the gray background of the hair and beard. For this image he had to grow a moustache for two months on purpose, and his hair was made possible thanks to the oldest film studio "Lenfilm", which kindly lent me a Baroque men's wig.

Relying on my creative imagination, I mix the characters of different styles that appeal to me. In choosing the elements of the garment, I rely on an eclectic mix of different fabric textures. I made a coat in a modern cut and a shirt in the style of an 18th century French man's shirt in natural linen. The trousers were my homemade wool trousers decorated with wooden buttons. The analog of the lace tie for the production was a fabric I could find on hand, but in the painting itself I replaced this detail with the original pattern of a Venetian embossed lace tie, characteristic of the second half of the 17th century.

In the world of art and elegance, the detail is as important as the whole. I do not enter into the theatrical staging and get carried away with superfluous refinements such as embroidery, ruffles and sequins, but keep the image laconic and reduce the degree of grandeur and opulence. It was important to reveal the character of the charming gentleman hero through a relaxed pose, noble posture and various attributes. Using an eccentric entourage, I placed the main character in a world that does not exist, revealing his true face even under the mask of slight playfulness.