Russian Artist Vladimir Volegov

A selection of artworks bu Russian Artist Vladimir Volegov.
Vladimir was born in the city of Khabarovsk, on December 19, 1957. When he was two years old, his mother abandoned his father, took her son and moved to Sverdlovsk (formerly, Yekaterinburg). From then on, the family had often relocated from one place to another. The mother wanted Vladimir to become a doctor, but he had a strongly pronounced desire to paint. He was remarkably diligent and observant. While at school, his teachers often asked him to help create visual aids, and he earned his first money for drawing the slogan Long Live the First of May! when he was 13.

At the age of 14, he started to paint 3 m cinema posters, which later often added something special to the youth parties. In the city of Krivoi Rog, Vladimir entered an arts school, and during his time there, he discovered the art of many classical painters. The works by Ilya Repin and Valentin Serov had a particular effect on him.

In 1980, he entered the School of Graphics at Lvov Institute of Printing Art. At the entrance exam, he painted an illustration to the novel The Young Guard. The Admission Committee, having seen Vladimir’s work, unanimously made a decision about his admission, even though his Literature and the History of CPSU exam results were far from brilliant.

In 1982, in Krivoi Rog, Vladimir became the head of SPLAV artistic association. In 1986, he often visited Moscow, participated in international poster exhibitions, and in one of such contests, he won the first prize. In those very days, he visited the exhibition of Andreas Zorn’s works, which had a significant influence on him.

In 1988, he moved to Moscow in order to achieve his artistic potential. He started with painting portraits in Arbat, while at the same time he was looking for work. That was when his first contacts with publishing houses, advertising and record companies were established. They willingly employed him. With the emergence and development of digital technologies, Vladimir learned computer painting. He painted posters, covers for vinyl and CD albums, worked with advertising agencies for periodicals and street posters advertising. Throughout all that time, he never ceased to paint. The confused and hectic years of 1990 – 2000 were full of commercial orders, comic books, making sketches for promotional items. In order to survive, Vladimir accepted all the offers that came along.

In 1990, Vladimir started travelling to Europe, earning his living by painting portraits in the streets of Barcelona, Berlin, Vienna and other European cities. For 10 years, he participated in the Summer Portrait project in the Austrian town of Wels. Having seen his works on the vinyl and CD album covers he made for show business projects, Russian show business celebrities started making orders for painted portraits.

In 1992, during his summer work as a contracted painter in the park of Gardaland (Italy), in one of the local markets, he purchased a book with Giovanni Boldini’s pictorial reproductions, which impressed, amazed and inspired Vladimir.

When he saw the impressionists’ originals in the Musée d'Orsay, he started to spend more time on painting and never stopped working. At the beginning of 2000, Vladimir created a web page with his commercial and artistic works. It was through that page, that his art manager found him, and in 2004, Vladimir signed a long-term contract with Soho Editions, NY, USA. Vladimir discovered the names of John Singer Sargent, Joaquin Sorolla, adopted the style of romantic realism and started to paint in that manner.

After seven years of marriage, in 2006, Vladimir and his wife, Ekaterina, moved to Spain. And in that same year, their son Anton was born. In 2007, he started his successful cooperation with Galeries Bartoux in France as well as with art galleries in the USA, Italy and Sweden.

In 2011, while Vladimir was working on a 3D project, an idea of creating 3D dolls dawned on him. He set up the www.volegovdolls.com web page and took part in the exhibitions in Paris (Doll Expo 2012), in Barcelona (Doll Show 2012), in New York (Art Expo New York 2012), in which both his paintings and dolls were a tremendous success. Vladimir worked on the inflow of private orders for portraits while simultaneously pursuing his artistic endeavours, the main theme of which was depicting women and children. Besides, Vladimir created videos dedicated to the process of painting creation, and has composed music to them.

Since 2015, Vladimir has started to conduct video tutorials in figurative oil painting and, after his followers’ persistent requests, he has created a tutorial DVD.

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