I have been painting for as long as I remember. I graduated from an art college in Moscow but never made painting my full-time occupation, devoting myself to the history of art and leaving painting for my leisure time. I moved to California in 2008 and lived there for 10 years, working on my Ph.D. as well as on oil and acrylic landscapes, seascape sketches and urban sketches. I started painting full time when I moved to Sydney 3 years ago. For me, discovery and creative exploration are an essential part of making art. I like trying unusual and complicated painting techniques. I find the encaustic technique very engaging as it combines the fluidity and unpredictability of glasswork with the beauty of the oil painting.
Encaustic painting is an amazing technique dating back as far as the Byzantine period and beyond. The technique involves heating of beeswax to temperatures at which it may be easily manipulated before mixing pigments into the wax, resulting in an encaustic mixture. This mixture is applied to surfaces as a sort of paint while it is still in a molten state. Once the encaustic painting has begun to cool, the artist is given the unique opportunity to sculpt and shape wax using metal tools and special brushes. Besides making my own color medium I combine the wax with oils, acrylics and oil pastels melting them with a heat gun to create really fascinating textures that emulate the natural world, making this method really unique and organic.
