Sergej has spent a lifetime refining a romantic-symbolic sense of the world and a passion for colour, which has become the foundation of his professional life as a painter.

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Sergej was born in 1963 in Lviv, Ukraine. He graduated from Khmelnitskiy School of Arts in 1980, after which he studied with master-colourist Vladimir Borodin. Following this he spent seven years as a deep sea navigator and deck officer. Eventually he anchored in the beautiful Klaipeda Harbour in Lithuania, where he still lives with his wife and son. Sergei splits his time between here and London, where he works from his studio in Wimbledon.

Sergej’s paintings offer a fresh view on the classic style and immerse us in the mysterious and stunning world of impressionism. Colour is his passion and through his painting he tries to convey to viewers the same energy, happiness and joy he feels in his encounters with the physical world. Sergej paints exclusively in oils using a palette knife; the bold strokes, vibrant colours and textured layers produce a visual feast for any viewer.

His work is held in private collections in the USA, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Czech Republic, Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, Ukraine and the UK. He is a member of the Zhemaifija’s Artists Association in Lithuania.

www.sovcharuk-art.eu

Karen Lappon, International Confederation of Art Critics:

“Sergej Ovcaruk is an eclectic painter who ranges in style from traditional figurative still lifes and post-impressionist landscapes to absolutely abstract works.

“The first impression of Sergej’s artworks is that he is a learned painter who draws his inspiration from the Old Masters of art history. His still lifes, for example, remind us of Claesz, Kalf, Aelst - painters of the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century.

“His compositions are well-balanced and intriguing and lend an almost mystical harmony to the objects depicted; their varied textures and materials only highlight Sergej’s great illusionistic skill. His subjects are painted with sheer virtuosity and fine attention to detail. But the great brilliance and depth of colour is what really brings these works to ‘life’; the deep, dark, warm tones of the shadows suddenly transfixed by piercing rays of light painted with pure, rich, vivid colours accentuate the utter beauty of these paintings.

“His post-impressionist landscapes, painted with unblended colours and purely gestural use of the palette knife, are of a forceful emotional communication. The vibrant hatching strokes and the lively, vivid colours emphasise the dynamic and almost tumultuous nature of his subjects. His quest to capture colour and light, and his ability to translate visual perceptions into pure effects of luminosity, clearly transpire in these beautiful scenes of the world seen through Sergej’s wonderful interpretation of his surroundings.

“Ovcharuk’s more abstract paintings are essentially sensorial depictions of his innermost sensitivity. Again, colours play a central part. The effect created by the combination of analogous and complementary colours is stunning and their strong impact on the eye is absolutely captivating and overwhelming.

“As Leonardo da Vinci said: “The mind of the painter must resemble a mirror, which always takes the colour of the object it reflects and is completely occupied by the images of as many objects as are in front of it”. And Sergej has certainly applied this to his paintings with incredible draughtsmanship.”