Interview with Anatol Blinkouski

The Pine” by Anatol Blinkouski was selected as an “Honorable Mention” in our July show. Here is some information about the artist and his work.

” I am originally from Belarus. I’m thirty. Until the age of 17 I lived in Belarus, then I graduated from the Technical University in St. Petersburg. I worked for 5 years in my specialty at several factories. Now I work as a teacher in a technical school. I’m self-taught artist. I have been painting and drawing for 10 years, in my spare time. I draw because it is interesting to express my feelings through it. And the experiences themselves at the same time seem to become more significant, touching, deeper imprinted in me. It’s just there, but why, I don’t know.

“The Pine” is drawn from nature. I don’t paint from a photographs. This is important for me, because this is how I plunge into life, get closer to life: I perceive the reactions of people, animals, I struggle with the changing weather.  Thus, the process itself, time, my feelings are imprinted on the picture, absorbed into it. I find this important. But in general, nature is just beautiful. Such drawings bring me rest and allow me to escape from dubious worries and worries, allow me to think about the ordinary, as if from the outside, to look from the borders of a wider framework.

During the coronavirus period, I was working on my computer remotely, so my eyes hurt a lot now. That’s all.To be honest, the coronavirus had little impact on my creativity.

What are my plans for the future? I would like to invent it, but I will answer honestly and simply: I don’t know. Something will turn out. The main thing is to be able to be attentive.

Thank you for your appreciation.  This gives me confidence.”

Anatol Blinkouski