KONSTANTIN ROMANOV

MEMBER OF UNION OF ARTISTS OF RUSSIA
MEMBER OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ART (AIAP UNESCO)
CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF WATERCOLOR PAINTING (USA)

All the pictures have been painted with waterclours "VAN GOGH" Royal Talens (Holland) on cardboards and fixed with the fixative "Maimeri" (Italy).

Konstantin Romanov entered the world of visual arts after many years of working in the sphere of engineering, without any art education. He started to paint in the 1990s years of the 20th century - hard time for Russia itself and for Russian art in particular. That time many artists felt lost in new difficult conditions and preferred to turn to postmodernism or even left the world of art. I feel necessary to say, that nowadays postmodernism tends to proclaim itself as the only modern and actual art, its influence is so aggressive, that many artists have caved in to it.

But it's not about Konstantin Romanov! He started to paint when he was quite old, maybe that's the reason why he passed the period of studding quickly and stared to work as a real master, having no doubt that he had a right to reflect the reality in realistic manner using difficult watercolor technique. It's important to say, that even the skilled professionals usually have quite a few successful watercolors, while Konstantin Romanoff can be proud of the great part of his works.

Time's shown, he was right to choose this way. His eye, trained with the video shooting, can easily find meaty motives, landscapes and genres, and build the composition confidently. The artist can see interesting moments and moods of northern nature, which can seem very modest from the first glance, but Konstantin Romanov can describe them using many tenuous shades. The main peculiarity of his paintings is the faithfulness, which characterizes his pictures of villages or modest northern plants. There're no trifles for Konstantin Romanov - he pays equal attention to each twig, he empathizes with the fate of each blade, each field covered with snow, each woodlot… The way, Konstantin Romanov describes the tense life of stone, is also very careful. Among his heroes we can find old wooden houses, hibernate ships, indispensable bath-houses surrounded with the stacks of wood and many others. Sometimes we cans see people on his pictures, Konstantin Romanov chooses simple scenes, children on his pictures are painted with love but without any sugariness…

The life of water is a special motive of his oeuvre. He can find something new both in the quiet movement of water in the river's arm and in the standing water of the lake. We can't find ostentatious artistry in his manner of painting, even when he decisively pictures the multicolored wildness of water-fall, the dynamism of the element springs from within the motive.

Konstantin Romanov works practically without mistakes, he spends a long time trying to find the right textures and colors, but it's impossible to call his works "dry". Though his technique is diligent, Konstantin always feels the edge between real art and photo-realism together with naturalism, which is often abused and mixed with social realism, a real bogey of modern Russian art.

Konstantin Romanov's devotion to the province - the place where the country begins - is demonstrative, it's necessary to have a special courage not to betray alike motives.

The reason of his success is a special, well recognizable emotionality of his works, which stands them apart from the ones of his colleagues. It's not by chance, that his watercolors have a success not only in Russia, but in other countries too, where the talented pictures, fill with respect attitude to the nature, are quite rare nowadays. Konstantin Romanov has already collected a huge pack of diplomas, certificates and awards from the exhibitions all over the world. During the times of total decorativism and postmodernism Konstantin Romanov remains loyal to the great Russian landscape tradition, easel painting - the only one which is still alive in Russia. From my point of view, it's the real actual art!