Belarusian artists. His name is well known to connoisseurs of fine art both in Belarus and abroad. He is one of the brightest representatives of the Molodechno creative community, which occupies a prominent place in the history of the Belarusian fine arts of the 20th–21stcenturies. It is associated with such masters as Yadviga Rozdzyalovskaya, Dmitry Krachkovsky, Konstantin Khoroshevich, Yury Gerasimenko-Zhiznevsky, Aleksandr Pashkevich and Aleksandr Grishkevich.
Nikolay Ovchinnikov, a student of Ivan Stolyarov and Felix Gumen, actively declared himself as a representative of the Vitebsk watercolor school since the mid-70s. Today, Nikolay Ovchinnikov has a reputation as one of the leading Belarusian masters of watercolor. This is a difficult method which is temperamental, capricious and unpredictable. The method requires speed and accuracy when working with it. His watercolor works are not characterized by bright colors and conspicuous decorativeness. However, they are special with a philosophical aspect, careful forethought of artistic forms, openness to experiment and improvisation, and high mastery of execution. Moreover, the artist creates technically complex works of large formats, thereby destroying the stereotype about the chamber nature of watercolors.
The main theme of Nikolay Ovchinnikov’s landscapes is historical places of Belarus, monuments of culture, architecture and archeology. His landscapes are lyrical and romantic, soulful in figurative idea, restrained and transparent in color. One feels that the artist cares deeply about the historical memory of his people. In front of the viewer he tries to reveal a clear connection between past and present. It is preserved by the cultural heritage passed down to us by our ancestors.
He was born on December 3, 1952 in Gorodets Village (Rogachev District and Gomel Region). He graduated from the Graphic Arts Department of the Vitebsk Pedagogical Institute in 1974. He studied under Ivan Stolyarov and Felix Gumen. He has been participating in exhibitions since 1976. The artist has more than 200 solo and group exhibitions in Belarus, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and Ethiopia. He works in watercolor and easel painting. The artist has been a member of the Belarusian Union of Artists since 1988. He is awarded with the medal of the Belarusian Union of Artists ‘For Merit in the Fine Arts’ (2007). The works of Nikolay Ovchinnikov are in the National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus, the National Center for Contemporary Arts of the Republic of Belarus, the State Museum of the History of Belarusian Literature, the Mogilev Regional Art Museum named after P. V. Maslenikov, the Minsk Regional Museum of Local Lore, funds of the Belarusian Union of Artists, in private collections in Germany, Israel, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the USA, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Sweden. He lives in Molodechno. The artist teaches painting and composition at the Gymnasium-College of Arts in Molodechno.
The exhibition runs until March 19, 2023
