Sergei Lyakhovitch, artist

The St. Petersburg of Sergei Lyakhovitch

Sergei Lyakhovitch is a St Petersburg artist, the author of a series of urban landscapes. A passionate romanticist, he is the successor of the best traditions of the Russian school of painting. He was born in 1961 in the small town of Podporozhie, in the Leningrad region. After leaving art school he entered Leningrad School of Fine Art n.a. V. Serov, and in 1985 became a student of the faculty of painting of the Repin Fine Arts Academy. Having successfully completed his education under the guidance of the  renowned professor Fomin, Sergei has continued his search for his own style and figurative language.

His keenness during his student years for the impressionists and Russian artists of the early 20th century became the basis of his picturesque manner already developed to a mature stage. As one becomes acquainted with Lyakhovitch's work, one can find many stylistic parallels and influences with the paintings of    Pissarro, Sisley,    Serov,    Korovin, Polenov and with other eminent painters of plein air.

The creative work of Sergei Lyakhovitch is inseparably linked with the poetic imagery of St. Petersburg, wherein he finds his source of inspiration. His landscapes are penetrated with thin lyricism, sincerity of feelings and a clear and quiet attitude towards his beloved city.
 
The author aspires to “especial picturesque freshness” of a landscape, which one feels in      nature, and searches to discover in a painting. His works on canvas differ with the ease and freedom of his brush, with clarity and cleanliness of colour, with knowledge of receptions of plein air. Written by fine lively brush-strokes of light paint, they pass an atmosphere of summer solar day: (" Malaya Koniushennaya street ", "Griboyedov Canal", "Stroganoff Palace", and "Yachts"). Or conditions of an early winter morning: ("First snow ", " Kriukov    Canal ", " In the park".), as we sense the vibration of the air and the splash of water. The refined ratios of silver-grey, and emerald-greenish tones create noble and rich nuances of colour spectrum.

Perhaps    the most important landscape themes of Lyakhovitch's painting are canals of St. Petersburg, thematically rich    and beneficial for creative self-expression. Changeable - the most "impressionistic" among environments – water gives the artist rich effects of reflexes and twinkling of light, intensifying the romanticism of a landscape: ("Embankment of Moika", "Bridge", "Griboedov Canal", "The Fontanka").

Filled with light and air, and feelings of life’s pleasures, Sergei's paintings finally change our perceptions about gloomy and gray St. Petersburg - offering a wonderfully impressionistic and romantically individual view of the city. Ultimately, a reflection of his    own romantic individualism, full of hopes and creativity, enthusiastically embracing new themes and opportunities for travel.

Natalie Popova, art critic