The artist who paints love with rainbow colors and gold leaf: Oleg Zhivetin

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Songs and romances have been sung about love that accompanies humanity throughout its history. Poems and prose were written about her. Artists and sculptors tried to vividly depict its sensual content … Love is the only feeling in nature, in which there is no limit to either the power of imagination or the flight of fantasy, which is why the paintings of artists dedicated to this quivering feeling always attract and fascinate the viewer most of all. And in our days love is a favorite topic for many authors. Today in our review we will present an original series of works Russian-American artist Oleg Zhivetin, who created his own wonderful world of lovers.

The symbolic canvases of this artist are called unusual, fantastic, philosophical, magical. And not only because Oleg Zhivetin chose love as the main theme of his paintings, the artistic style and technique, which were found by the master in the process of painstaking work, are unique in their own way. His paintings are recognizable, stylish and filled with vivid symbolism, the principles of which were used in their works by old masters of different eras, revealing this amazing theme. And, as you know, many symbolist classics turned to her, namely Gustav Klimt, Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo … Apparently, Oleg Zhivetin draws his inspiration from their work, creating his unique works.

Therefore, it should be noted that the originality of Oleg Zhivetin's creations also lies in the use of many peculiar symbols. So, some of the spectators will see the images of the Madonna, angels and saints as a symbol, someone will see the symbols of beauty, delicacy and spiritual development in musical instruments, books, flowers, hearts. The artist's paintings inspire new confessions and open heartfelt feelings to a loved one. And this also contains a symbolic message.

The heroes of the painter's canvases often "communicate" both with each other and with the viewer with the help of gestures, which are also filled with subtle meaning. It is in them that the author puts his attitude to the real world. - says the artist himself about his works.

The technique in which the artist works deserves special attention. He paints "complex paintings" using numerous layers of paint, intricate color schemes, intricate patterns using gold leaf, silver and copper. As a result, we see a kind of painting technique combined with volumetric decor created using reliefs of various textures. By the way, the delightful decor in each work is unique and unrepeatable in its execution.

The artist also, with incredible skill, creates a harmony of compositional figures and images on his canvases, bringing them into spherical frames. It is this approach that allows the master to give dynamism to his work. And the experience of painting, gained in his youth, helps to create a range of correctly selected colors, harmonious coloring, the ratio of the color gamut and its subtlest shades.

The main feature of Zhivetin's author's handwriting is his ability to collect several images into a single whole, intertwining figures in a harmonious burst of feelings and complementing them with the effect of refraction of harmoniously composed colors.

A few words about the author

Russian-American artist Oleg Zhivetin was born in 1964 in the capital of Uzbekistan into a family of artists. Oleg's first mentor and teacher was a very demanding father. At the age of nine, the boy entered the children's art school. When the family of the future artist moved to Moscow, Oleg, at the age of fifteen, began to study at the Moscow Academy of Arts, from which he graduated with honors in 1982. On the second attempt, he became a student at the Surikov Art Institute.

In 1990, Oleg Zhivetin, having received the title of Master of Fine Arts after graduation, left for the United States. And already in 1991, the young artist was invited to his first solo exhibition at the Mission San Juan Capistrano Museum in California, where he presented to the American public a series of paintings entitled "Origigraphs" and received positive reviews from the press and television. It was since then that the artist began to work on extremely complex paintings with the universal theme of love and his recognizable style of breaking colors, where through the eyes of the painter the public sees the subtle sensuality and tenderness of anxious relationship.

It should be noted that such an extraordinary technique very quickly gained its fans, and its author - the good reputation of an innovative artist in many countries. By the way, in recent years the artist has often been to Russia, fruitfully collaborating with Russian art galleries.

Finishing today's review, I would like to bring the words of Holy Scripture: “Love endures for a long time, is merciful, love does not envy, love is not exalted, is not proud, does not rage, does not seek its own, does not get irritated, does not think evil, does not rejoice in untruth, but rejoices in the truth; Covers everything, believes everything, hopes everything, endures everything. Love never ceases to be … It is eternal!"

And this definition, as well as possible, characterizes the content of the original works of Oleg Zhivetin, which serve as a reminder to many of their first love - tender, quivering and unforgettable.

Nowadays, not many masters manage to surprise the viewer with non-standard and harmonious combination of form and content. The artist from Bryansk Sergey Kustarev succeeded with interest, he writes extraordinary pictures that are difficult to distinguish from coinage.