RUSSIAN ARTIST SERGEY CHEREP
By: Mike McLeod

"I came home once to find that Sergey had eaten a watermelon I bought...all of it.  
The next few days, I saw all these paintings with rich, red watermelon slices in them," recalled Renee Cherep.

Whether eating watermelon or talking with friends about their dreams, Sergey Cherep finds inspiration in his interaction with people and the environment. All of which culminates in bright, bold, primary-color oil paintings that are whimsical and Impressionistic in tone and style.

"You need feedback from people to be an artist,"
is Sergey's point of view.

Born is St. Petersburg in the old Soviet Union, Sergey began drawing at five after meningitis isolated him from his peers.  By eight, he was studiying art and attending art school. At 16, he was on his own, painting and sellling his landscapes, cityscapes and portraits on the streets of St. Petersburg.  Later, he attended one of the most prestigious art schools in Europe, the Serovo Art Institute, studying all of the classic forms of art.  There, he was encouraged to paint a broad range of subjects, but he excelled at landscapes.

After a fellow artist came to America, Sergey later followed at his invitation.

His first job in America was working for the Internal Revenue Service. "My first show was in the cafeteria of the IRS."  These paintings sold here in the States sold for about $100.  Now they sell for thousands.

Sergey's dramatic oil paintings reflect his great passion for French Impressionism and his continual love for colors, textures and light. His imagination is fueled by a lifetime of wanderlust.  Today, he has studio in Atlanta and Las Vegas, and he is planning a studio in Birmingham, England, and possibly another in Madrid.

In addition to American galleries, his work has been exhibited in Europe, in St. Petersburg and Moscow, and Australia.  Despite this growing notoriety, it is the act of painting that makes Sergey thrive.  "If I don't paint for a couple of days, I feel off balance....something is missing."

Sergey regularly paints for eight to ten hours per day. How many paintings does he complete in a week?

"In a day, you mean. I start between one and seven paintings every day."

Because he paints in layers, he has between one and two dozen paintings drying on racks all the time.  He revisits them each week, adding additional layers.

How does he remember the concept for each painting without sketches?

"They are all imprinted in my head forever.... Never goes away.  I feel like a sponge,........squeeze my head, and you get all these drops of colors coming out onto the canvas."

Although his work these days is primarily in oil on canvas, Sergey is also accomplished in painting on boards and glass and creating with charcoal, watercolors and pencil.  He is also accomplished in woodcuts.

Sergey's work has a touch of the magical about it, not only in talent, but also in form.  Houses are sometimes curved, have a vertical slit window in a chimney; water or sky may be red, and so on.  Just like in life, things are not always as they seem.  Yet, he has an expert eye for proportion, and he will sometimes cut a painting into two to get the right composition in both.

Sergey's painting style over the years has moved from the Monet-Impressionism to Post Impressionism with a three-dimensional aspect.  That is why in his later work you will often see clouds among houses or near the bottom of a painting, giving it not only depth, but almost a fairyland quality...where the ephemeral moves among the mortal.

Sergey's overalll purpose in his work is to stretch the imagination of the viewers, to get them "....going,...doing something...to stretch them spiritually."

Frankly, he admits that his work would not be accepted in his home country.  When his mother visited not long ago, her response to his work was, "What is this?"

"In Europe and Russia, people think differently. They like realism in artwork in Russia----gray skies, heavy.  Life is tough there."

Gray is a color not often seen in a painting by Sergey Cherep. Rather than mix, muddy and dilute colors, his aggressive work highlights the bold, positive, primary colors of his imagination.

His lively landscapes transcend the everday experience with colors sometimes out of kilter and elements popping up in unlikely places.

Sergey Cherep's imagination is captivating art lovers
and collectors the world over.