Autobiography of Artem Zaretskov
I was born in a poor family and there was little entertainment. Brushes and paints
became one of the few. At the age of 3-4, I picked up brushes for the first time. I had
watercolor paints and paper, I spent hours putting layers of paint on paper and looking at all
the new images there. Since then, painting has accompanied me all my life.
During my school years, I participated in many exhibitions on various topics, both in my
city and in the region and country. I left many of my school papers in memory of my teacher
and family. In my free time from school, I painted pictures on the tables of friends, on
motorcycles, painted garages and began to depict my thoughts on clothes a little. Different
types of “paints" were used: aerosol, acrylic, markers and pencils. I was interested in
learning techniques and ways to convey my emotions.
As a student, I found inspiration in music and painting faded into the background for six
years. The turning point was the writing of “The Reapers” and moving to St. Petersburg.
There was also a breakup of the band, I was “broke” and it came to me to sell my favorite
guitar. In a fit of feelings, I painted the following picture “The Sea”, which was amazing in
its scale (330 x 230 cm) and was painted in the shortest possible time - 30 days.
While living and working in St. Petersburg, I began to return to painting again. I tried
different techniques, discovered a unique style of drawing a pattern on objects that came to
hand, as well as paper, fabrics, canvas. An important discovery was oil painting after visiting
the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, where the originals of great artists from all over the
world are presented.
For one of the exhibitions in St. Petersburg, my colleague and I prepared 6 sketches of
paintings that suggested a description of the underworld and dark matter. Each of us wrote
his own series of 6 paintings, which then formed a single composition of 12 parts and was
exhibited only in the form of sketches. After the exhibition, I began to transfer my sketches
into full-fledged oil paintings, rethinking them. In the process of their reincarnation,
inexplicable and terrible events began to occur in my life and the lives of my loved ones, I
began to think that I was going crazy. The paintings put pressure on everyone who was in
the same room with them. And before I finished, I decided to burn them.
Two years ago I started painting a picture that symbolized the pain of loss, despair and
hopelessness. The idea of depicting fading sunflowers in the dark was laid and most of the
work took the first year. In the second year of the painting, I met a girl who changed my
vision of the world by 180 degrees and instead of sunflowers shrouded in darkness, a lively,
bright picture with blooming sunflowers appeared among the blue and clear sky. The
painting “Sunflowers” saw its completion within six months and became a new stage in my
life and work.
All my life I have been inspired by my feelings, emotions and experiences. The image of
each picture surfaced in my mind quite unexpectedly and then immediately came to life. I
have never studied painting in special institutions, I have always felt “paints” and
“canvases”, and my imagination and feeling guided the brushes. I want to dedicate my life to
art, to please and inspire other people by showing the embellishments of the world around
us.