Nesciens peius non habens

Vision | Two Teachers | The Line

WHEN I COULDN'T DESCRIBE MY THOUGHTS IN WORDS, I STARTED PAINTING.

My first teacher was a man who had never read a single word in his life, everything he knew he learned on his own or from his father. He knew more about nature than most people today, but he didn't know that the earth is round. He was a caveman. He taught me that even a line drawn with a finger on a wall will fascinate a people even after 40 millenniums.

My second teacher would not be my friend today, not a single word he wrote, not a single drawing of his has survived, he was a murderer, an outcast of society who evaded justice until his death. He called himself Caravaggio. He taught me that it is not always right to do things the way the current era and its authorities demand. But if you go too far, you will not last long in this era. Freedom of thought and freedom are not for sale.

The Renaissance dug up Rome to remember what art was; Rome, in turn, had seized Greece for the very same hunger. Even the Greeks did not begin in a void—they built their epoch upon forty millennia of human creativity, from the first line drawn on a cave wall. Today, we are offered tangled wires, spilled acrylics, and bananas duct-taped to a gallery wall—a visual vomit of the ephemeral. I say: put down the tape and the cheap tricks. Pick up the shovels. We must dig through this modern mire to rediscover what it means to create. I refuse to contribute to this plastic decay; I choose to leave behind something that, a thousand years from now, will be worth the labor of unearthing.

IT TOOK ME ALMOST TWO DECADES TO UNDERSTAND THESE THINGS. BUT MY LEARNING DIDN'T END THERE, IT BEGINS EVERY TIME I PUT DOWN MY BRUSH, I MADE MY STUDIO IN THE LIBRARY.

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EVERY TIME I HANG MY LATEST PAINTING, I FIND OUT WHAT WAS DONE WRONG IN THE PREVIOUS ONE. ON THE DAY IT CEASES TO BE SO, I WILL HAVE LEARNED NOTHING NEW.

Method & Mystery | From Matter to Perception

I'm not painting the reality that I actually see, I'm painting the perceptions that were preserved in my memory, that were hyperbolized by my imagination, and in the form of simple brush strokes, they came  back to daylight again.

I start painting with a mid-tone surface of warm gray or warm earthy color. Lights and shadows - it is how I perceive reality or fantasy, and in this spirit I prepare an underpainting, dark values of umber color, lights of white and ochre colors, I don't like to use lines except for those expressive ones. I apply further layers, superimpositions of different transparency and juxtapositions of different materiality, usually after the last layer has dried thoroughly, but I finish some layers alla prima too. I take advantage of the unique properties of oil paints and media, especially the transparency of glazes and the ability to mix colors right on the canvas.
It is a complex and time consuming process, but the result is inimitable - no digital or modern medium can replace the optical properties of traditional oil painting.

AS SOON AS YOU UNDERSTAND THE UNKNOWN, IT CEASES TO BE MYSTERIOUS. ART HIDES SO MANY MYSTERIES.

Against the Industrial | The Alchemy of My Materials

Like my teachers, I also rely on materials that I prepare myself. It's a very lengthy process, you can't just buy it yesterday, paint it today, and sell it tomorrow. It is a lifelong process, after a long years I have mastered those media and materials that allow me to create more organic and unique works.

Priming a Support - I choose raw linen for its natural slubs and enduring strength, whether it's a fine Belgian or a strong Eastern European one. Each support is hand-primed to ensure a perfect dialogue with the paint. I cook natural gley (RSG) and prepare Traditional Gesso, all according to the proven recipes of the old masters, including some secret ingredients ;-). Such gesso on a board dries in a few days, oil gesso emulsion on a canvas in half a year. But the result is worth it, the base is organic, not machine-smoothed, it's suitable for unique work.
I use acrylic gesso for very large canvases - due to transportation, I expect to roll the canvas more often in the future.

Media - my studio-made emulsions provide the depth and materiality essential to my work. I thicken linseed oil in the sun to the degree I consider best, I boil flemish black oil with lead lithard - exactly as Rembrandt used, I add silica or egg yolk or egg white to the medium, just as Rembrandt did. I don't do this to copy someone else's technique, I do it to know my media, to know how the material will behave and look, just as Rembrandt knew.

Paints - tempera and tempera grassa I always make fresh, always according to old recipes. (I do some underpaintings with tempera). I usually buy oil paints ready-made, either butter Dutch and Belgian or more raw natural ones from other parts of the world. I mix some pigments myself, colors that cannot be bought or old and secret recipes. (e.g. Putrido)

Final Varnish - the old masters either didn't use it, or they used varnishes based on resin. Unfortunately, these turn brown or black in a few decades. The painting is protected, but relatively frequent restoration intervention is necessary. Here I chose a modern version of resin, or rather several synthetic resins. The first layer is made of high-molecular and the second layer is finer, shiny with a uniform appearance.  I also add modern UV protection, it is likely that such a final varnish will last for more than a century without changing its structure or color. (Laropal A81 and Regalrez 1094 enhanced with Tinuvin® UV stabilizers)

An impurity in natural pigments, a natural slubs in the linen canvas or a tight knots in the wood, or a bent board is not an imperfection, it is the uniqueness of each material used, it is like a brushstroke, each one is different and unique. It is the opposite of industrial production, the exact opposite of today's digital revolution, which is why I love this lengthy preparation and processes so much.

Today I have opportunities that my teachers did not have, yet I do not rely on commercially sold products, I look for quality in the very essence of the material and not in the label or marketing myths.

SOME THINGS IN LIFE WORK EVEN THOUGH WE DON'T UNDERSTAND THEM, OTHERS DON'T WORK EVEN THOUGH WE UNDERSTAND THEM WELL.

Digital Renaissance | Archiving the Soul

I bridge the 17th-century alchemy with 21st-century light. This is a meeting of two eras: the first renaissance of hand-ground pigments and sun-thickened oils, and a second, digital renaissance that grants them immortality. I do not merely photograph my work; I perform a high-definition excavation of its soul using Deep-Zoom Gigapixel technology.
I would be lying if I said this odyssey was a walk in the park for an atomic physicist. Mastering this level of optical precision required a significant investment of time, resources, and mental endurance. Yet, the result is worth every second.
For the discerning collector, this offers an unprecedented level of transparency and archival security. By creating digital archives containing hundreds of millions to billions of pixels, I allow you to travel deeper into the canvas than the naked eye ever could. Every microscopic grain of mineral pigment and every stroke of the Mosaic Impasto is preserved with forensic precision. This is a digital twin of the physical masterpiece—an archival legacy that ensures the soul of the linen is never lost to time.

FORTY MILLENNIA FOR A CAVE DRAWING. FIVE CENTURIES FOR AN OIL PAINTING. A FEW DECADES FOR THE DIGITAL AGE. IN THE END, OUR DESCENDANTS MAY ONLY SEE THE CANVAS—THE ONLY MEDIUM THAT TRULY KNOWS HOW TO AGE WITHOUT DISAPPEARING. AND THAT LINE ON THE CAVE WALL? IT REMAINS UNCHANGED.

Become a Subject | Character for Eternity

I don’t seek professional models; I seek authentic faces that carry a story. Just as the masters of the 17th century found their saints in the streets, I look for souls to inhabit my linen stage. If you feel the call of history and wish to be immortalized in oil, step into the light. Learn more about the collaboration ▶