Valeriy Grachov/ VS 4

February 27, 2008

Flowers 002 - Paper + Watercolor

Himalayas - Canvas, oil

Beauties of Kiev 011 - Paper + Watercolor

Beauties of Kiev 007 - Paper + Watercolor

Valeriy Grachov was born in Russia in 1949. He later moved to Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine with his family. After graduating from Kiev’s Institute of Design and Architecture in 1972, the artist resided and worked in many places — such as over mountains in Central Asia, and islands in the Japanese Sea.

At the moment, Mr. Grachov positions himself as an artist working in the direction of romantic realism. His youth was passed during the stifling time of Breznev’s government, where everything except socialistic realism was prohibited. He kept away from officious art and tried to live and work independently.

To Mr. Grachov, the speed of painting a work is a pledge of its quality – faster is better. When he begins a new realistic work, it is often already formed in the mind. The rest depends on spontaneity. This keeps old ideas from being recycled and gradually degrading the art.

Realistic works are more national, because their subjects are often concerned with ethnic life or particular places. Abstractionism is a result of the industrial world. It seems to the artist, that we have been children of a single Culture for a long time already.

Mr. Grachov has a simple, pure love for painting mountain landscapes. The mountain vibe is Spring, melting snow, might, and above all — real youth.

Posted in oil, watercolor