The old quarry (2022) Painting by Anatoliy Nozdrin

Any creativity is inseparable from life, and now it is under the sign of insane and cruel aggression against free Ukraine. There is no justification or explanation for it, none other than the vanity of the dictator.

My path in painting began in my preschool years when my father took me to the Hermitage and the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, the most comprehensive collections of the finest art in Russia. I still remember with trepidation how I stood spellbound in front of Maestro Aivazovsky's painting "The Ninth Wave" - the pinnacle of his genius. Of course, at school they sent me to the best art school, where I studied for 5 years under the guidance of A.G. Patrakov - perhaps the most expressive painter of the city. The training was based on strict academic principles and laid the foundation for painting technique and a general approach to composition and drawing. I remember the master classes of the then not so famous painter A. Shevelev. His paintings were exhibited in galleries and delighted me. I was convinced quite early that I felt the greatest craving only for the landscape, since it is very close to me, because I constantly went with my father to the forest, walked along the banks of the mighty Volga, and local meadows, thickets, trees and the sky were imprinted in my mind. Later I decided to supplement my skills and studied at the Yaroslavl Art College. However, having already graduated, I did not want to waste time and effort on extraneous disciplines, and I was advised to take private lessons. I consulted with landscape painters of the region: Patrakov, Bykov and Shevelev, keeping in mind the motto: “it cannot be taught, but one can only learn it”. Working as an aeronautical engineer required complete obedience to imposed rules and suppressed my desire for freedom, which resulted in a severe long-term depression. The rational part of me was exhausted, and salvation came from the artistic part. The paintings of Aivazovsky, Shishkin, Klodt, Rembrandt, Levitan have always fascinated me. Perhaps the craving for freedom prompted me to get carried away with the seascape with its eternally unpredictable and fluid environment. I studied the work of Aivazovsky, Bogolyubov and Cooke, Dmitriev. I participated in private commercial exhibitions in Rybinsk, Yaroslavl and Moscow. Lots of excessive and pointless fuss. This experience, despite its advantages, I have since avoided. February 24, 2022. Everything turned upside down. Disgust for this reality gave an additional impetus to creativity. Art fills me with inner strength to resist the suffocating atmosphere and preserve humanity.

• Nationality: RUSSIA
• Date of birth : unknown date
• Artistic domains:
• Groups: Russian Contemporary Artists