DEDICATION AND FAITH TO CHOICE

Sergey Stroganoff – Moscow animal painter, who chose the image of animals and birds as his main direction of creativity, made exclusively in pencil, some of which are presented in the currently fashionable direction – hyperrealism. Pencil drawing is one of the oldest forms of art. Drawing with a pencil has always required from the artist not only all his talent, as a draftsman, but also understanding that, how to use a pencil to illustrate selected objects. Mostly, artists use a pencil only to create sketches for subsequent work., rarely does a pencil become basic, and even less often the only instrument in the hands of the artist. It's not so easy to draw a picture with a pencil. It takes even more time and effort., rather than painting a picture with other visual materials. But the realization of the artist's intention becomes even more difficult., when he starts drawing animals in pencil. Animalistics, as a special genre in the visual arts, combines both natural science, and artistic beginnings. The main task of the animalist can be both the accuracy of the image of the animal, and artistic characteristics, including decorative expression or endowing animals with human traits, actions and experiences. The works of Sergei Stroganov represent an attempt to accumulate in them, as the first, so the second. Sergey Stroganov also shows himself as a talented illustrator. Recently, he has been actively working on the creation of a series of drawings for the fables of Aesop and La Fontaine.. In these works, the artist's characters seem to float in the air., being out of time and out of space, like the brilliant works of Aesop and La Fontaine themselves, whose creations have been captivating readers for so many centuries with their accuracy and unbridled imagination. His works are just as laconic, like the texts themselves and the language of Aesop, and at the same time, just as lyrical and spiritual, like La Fontaine's fables. The heroes of his drawings exist as if in two spaces - and as by themselves, being representatives of the animal world, and, at the same time, as characters of a work. Both the artist manages to perform in a very balanced way.. Using the storyline of the works, artist, in the same time, focuses not so much on what is happening, how many fables of Aesop and La Fontaine are on the characters themselves, conveying an amazingly enchanting image of the animals themselves, without enriching them with any elements of nature, neither interiors, forcing to concentrate on the main thing, discarding irrelevant details. In his illustrations, the artist presents short, entertaining stories, carrying a certain moral lesson at the will of the authors of fables. His works depict characters of fables of amazing beauty and grace – animals and birds, contrary to logic, foundations and laws of nature, caught up together, thanks to the greatest talent and creative inspiration of the brilliant fabulists of the past - Aesop, who lived in 600 years BC and Jean de La Fontaine, creatively reworked the legacy of Aesop in the middle of the 17th century. For all the plausibility and even hyperrealistic images of animals, artist, still subtle, but without any irony, caricature or convention, tries to endow them with emotions that are lacking by their very nature. His characters are also skeptical and pessimistic., as well as frankly conditional characters of Aesop. And at the same time, they are endowed with the beauty of La Fontaine's poetic introductions and digressions.. Drawings by Sergey Stroganov are amazing in their scope and format of the work performed – a striking example of modern pencil art. They are so photo realistic and unique., that most people, when viewing his work for the first time, hardly believe, that these drawings were made only in pencil. Amazing technique, detailing, scrupulousness and accurate understanding of the illustrated material allowed to create an amazing in its scale gallery of unforgettable images and plots, founded, basically, on literary material. The artist's appeal to illustrations of works of art makes it possible not only to plunge through a pencil drawing into the enchanting world of animals, which itself is infinitely varied and colorful, but also to get in touch with the creations of the greatest masters of the word of the past, won fame, in particular, and that, that their main characters were animals. His works captivate with their special magical-bewitching and positive-emotional energy, each of which has amazingly incredible love, respect and dedication to nature, which is reflected in the work of Sergei Stroganov, creating such bright, animalistically accurate, artistically designed, talentedly executed and literary verified images. Article author: Alexander Shchelyakov – Curator of international art exhibition projects.