I was born in 1974 in Paris, into a family of Russian emigrants. I learned the basics of the profession from Sergueï Toutounov, a painter trained in the Russian naturalist tradition at the Sourikov Institute in Moscow. After a few years in his studio, I moved to my own studio in Paris, first in the 18th arrondissement, then, and until now, in the 10th arrondissement. During a long trip to Morocco, I was marked by the astonishing vivacity of the contrasts, both of light and colour, and I gradually tried to convey this feeling. I like to paint the city, especially at night. In its illuminated display cases and varied lighting, I find these strong contrasts, ranging from absolute black to the most brilliant white. Contrast that I also find on my regular trips to the countryside, in the Morvan or in the region, in the forests and woods. I rarely represent man in my subjects, but his absence is only a decoy, there is always his mark somewhere. I also like to play with blurred lines, making the world a little more abstract, pushing to recreate the image by oneself. I look at other people’s paintings a lot, I feed on them and they infuse my work. My tastes are diverse, I like Rembrandt (for his contrasts) as much as Bonnard (for his use of colour and his windows), Nicolas De Staël (his compositions, his audacity...) as Hopper (the silence of his paintings)... The blacks of Soulages, the bodies of Bacon or Freud, the brilliance of Van Gogh, the finesse of Monet or the colours of Kandinsky...
