What can one say about an artist with the army nickname “Baton”? That, apart from holding a brush, he is only capable of building Manilov-like fantasies about backing out of future projects. And that he managed to take advantage of free education in Soviet times, studying at the Moscow Secondary Art School and the Surikov Institute. He studied with everyone, which is something he has now stopped doing. When is there time to create? If you spend all your time hanging around exhibitions of the greats, you will have none left for yourself.
Improvising endlessly on the keys without recording, you begin to understand that you don’t need to be a professional in everything, or even in music. Why? Because you have no way of making money from it, and that immediately frees you from any imposed structure of the world. You are free, and music becomes like a prayer, without repetition. It is like breathing, like watching the sun for free, being amazed each time by the clouds and the invisible wind. But people usually forget this and paint with intoxicating pleasure, without giving their thoughts any freedom. During long breaks from painting, I might suddenly smear something the size of a palm — and the world inside my soul is restored, as if I had just unloaded a train carriage.
The present moment exists at the tip of the brush, at the instant it touches the canvas. Before that touch, sketch ideas are imperfect. Decisions only change in the present moment. If a sketch is reproduced exactly in the final painting, it means the creative search has faded. The fewer the colors on the palette, the more painterly the result. Large areas of mixing on the palette lead to the fading of that explosive combination. The more you mix, the less energy remains in the color. Mix your paints directly on the canvas! There is even the thought of squeezing paint onto a ruler to work, like Surikov, with a tiny palette.
Plein air teaches a portrait painter to see the subject without attachment. Any emotional involvement leads to highlights on the nose, to wealth, and to lifeless space within the work. Having a studio kills the artist within. What is needed is necessity, hunger, family, children, loans, and a sense of no way out — that is where the true open field for creativity lies.
Reflections of an Artist
