Anna in Yakut dress

[Sergio Ostroverhy]

Nice to see you too Enzie,

So much new work on your site!
Stunned by the "Funky hat"!!!
And the Work in Progress of Blue Tribe is clever,
USING EXACTLY the same technique!

[Sergio Ostroverhy]

Originally Posted by Thomasin Dewhurst

I also really enjoyed your firefighter piece that was selected for a recent BP Portrait award, very much.

Thanks Thomasin again for enthusiastic notices,
The piece at the National Portrait Gallery in London was definitely an adventure... I had to brake 8 doors in my art studio to get it out...
And now I have to get it in again.

[Tom Edgerton]

Sergio--

It's great to see you back on the Forum pages...

This piece is magnificent!

Best as always--TE

(I think of you often, as I still have the PFD medal on my keychain.)

[Linda Brandon]

Sergio, you're back, and with another spectacular painting! This is a remarkably haunting and magnetic painting and of course your technique is beyond compare (as usual). I loved your story of Anna.

What a treat to see your work again, please post some more soon.

[Sergio Ostroverhy]

Hellllllllo Linda! Nice to see you too...
Loved your painting: Dusk or Dawn! Very sensual.

The story about Anna is true (except may be the cup of tea:
there was a plastic, half broken, ugly Chinese thermos instead).

The cloths of Anna, are the cloths of her grand grand grand mother,
who was the wife of a very famous Yakut poet from the 19th century: Kulakovsky. That is why the kind of strange stylistic: 150 years ago even folkloric robes were influenced by city-fashion.

The Huskies aren't exact either. Instead: there was a completely lazy and terribly slow Yakut horse, which in fact was used by Scott when he tried to reach the Pole South before Amundsen. Certainly it was the reason of his death and failure, cause the Yakut horses did not eat fish-rests (and in addition were eaten themselves by Scott).

The blue eyes of the Huskies however are definitely an important part of the story of this painting cause when we finally arrived at the Yakut camp of Anna...
(who if you understood the situation correctly was a kind of "Taiga Firefighter" in the Summer and "Survival Tourist Saver" in the winter)
...so when we arrived... I was horribly impressed with the similitude of her eyes with the eyes of the Huskies....

...and and THIS WAS THE ORIGIN of my desire to paint her portrait!

[Sergio Ostroverhy]

Great thanks Tom for your appreciation,
Still consider your Admiral as a masterpiece...
As for my French Foreign Legionnary past:
only that key ring left which you talk about...
...and that small little fresco.

[Sergio Ostroverhy]

A small sight in my art studio
You can see a little bit the inside kitchen of how the painting was made.
I've completely forgot to say:
I did around 1300 photos of the model
before I started to paint...

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Yup, I have been busy, that's for sure!

Sergio, I love the background behind your painting. I followed with great interest what you have been experiencing and how this painting came to be.

I had to laugh when I saw your computer set up. I need to show your keyboard placement to my family, so they once and for all stop complaining about my set up. I do have a question for you. I noticed you have taken close-up shots of your model with different skin tones. Can you tell me why you did that? Are you keying up different areas to get more color information out of the original?

I so have to take a tutorial by you how to paint eyes!

[Sergio Ostroverhy]

Hello Enzie,

The different prints are for playing with the cold warm contrast on the face. I think it is the most difficult part to obtain in a portrait. The computer is there, but basically I don't work from it if have enough prints... after a while my eyes just cannot apprehend a computer screen image as a source to resolve a problem on the portrait.
I would even say, sometimes, the worst is the photo the more interesting is it to work after it on a portrait... and clearly: no photo can replace the original model sitting for you hours and hours!

[Linda Ciallelo]

Sergio, your work and your attitude are a breath of fresh air. This is wonderful! I can tell from what you say, and from the painting, that you paint and live straight from your soul.
Amazing work.