Artist: Sergey Cherep

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Size: 18" x 36"

Artist Bio:

Born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) on January 24, 1969, Sergey started studying art as a young child. At the age of 3 , he developed meningitis and became paralyzed, unable to walk or speak for several years. Attending a School for children with disabilities until he was 7 , he found comfort in painting. At the age of 8, he was enrolled in a school for artists and then went on to attend college at the prestigious Serovo Art Institute . There he gained extensive knowledge in all the classic art forms including European Art History, photography, printing processes, sculpture, restoration methods and painting from still-life to portraits.

"School was very disciplined," says Sergey, who is still deaf in his right ear from his childhood meningitis. "We did very traditional things like still-life, painting bowls and squares. The teachers told us what to paint - there was no freedom. There was no such thing as abstract because it was considered very Western and evil. The school was free - they gave the paint, the brushes, and the teachers, everything was paid for by the government. Russia went with talent . But once we got our diplomas, we were supposed to get a job and contribute back to society."

Graduated Art University
Sergey graduated from the Art University in 1988 when he was 18. Glasnost was just coming in and Gorbachev allowed free enterprise on the street. But while the young artist would paint city-scapes in oil, he was forced to sell his artwork through organized crime that controlled the streets, giving 70 percent of his profits to them.

Filled with wanderlust and dreams of what he could accomplish, in early 1991 Sergey made the decision to try and come to America to find the artistic freedom he desperately desired.

His Style
In 1994 , Sergey attended the World Cup Soccer game in California and visited Napa Valley while he was there. He was enchanted by the grapes, the beautiful landscape and the overall ambiance. That changed his art from the traditional European style depicting stark realism that was so prevalent in Russia to painting a bright, vivid palette of land and sea in primary colors.

"The technique of painting that I have embraced is definitely the Post Impressionism style made famous by Van Gogh," says Sergey. "I love the simplicity of colors and energy found in his work. The bold, unrealistic colors and expressive brushstrokes of my predecessors are my tool as i try to bring a three-dimensional feeling out from the paintings by using color , perspective and a thick texture. My paintings are like fairy tales-- a dream place. I don't see things as realistic. I allow the fantastic to happen. When I travel and paint, the sun, the grapes and the smells of California speak to me. But anything can motivate me--a picture, a cut watermelon,or even a color."