Vladimir Lebedev

Year of birth: 1968
Your education: I have got an engineering education in the nuclear area as Chemist-technologist.
Describe your art in three words: Admiring, painting, sharing
Your discipline: My main subject is landscape. Sometimes, I also do portraits and surrealistic paintings. However, I can’t say that it is thorough. I like to learn new things, and it may happen that I try out something else.
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Could you share with us your journey as an artist and how your engineering background influenced your artistic practice?

The path of the artist has coincided with my life since I can remember. I have always done something artistic – drawing, painting, modelling and other things. My father and then my schoolteachers helped with advising me on how to depict things that were difficult for me. While at school, I thought about my future career in architecture, and I worked to improve my skills in technical drawing and learnt about architectural styles. Also, I was active in participating in interschool art competitions at that time.
However, close to the end of high school, I decided finally to build my career in nuclear energy. I was successful in STEM disciplines, and such a decision was not incredible for me.
Thus, I went to St Petersburg to study nuclear engineering at the institute. It is a city filled with art. Street artists, beautiful buildings, bridges, museums, sculptures in gardens – all this gave a lot of inspiration. In the Hermitage I got acquainted with Impressionism. I saw paintings by great artists – C. Monet, H. Matisse, V. Van Gogh, Edgar Degas and many others. There I realised the wide variety of art, the diversity of forms and methods.
As far as engineering experience in my creative life is concerned, it has always been very useful.
My skills in technical drawing and descriptive geometry helped me to create the composition of my pictures. An understanding of the movement of the medium has allowed me to better depict water flows, water surfaces, shadows and light spots. The knowledge of mechanics came in handy when drawing buildings, bridges and towers.
I believe that knowledge of the nature of things and phenomena gives a fuller understanding of how to depict nature or architecture.
After graduating from the institute, while working at a company I drew a few pictures, as I was focused on engineering.
The main creative period in my life as an artist relates to ten-year living in France. The first artistic impulse arose during the Covid-19 confinement. Without leaving the house day after day, I tried to paint, and it was a kind of flash for me. Since 2021 I have been painting regularly in various techniques. In 2023 I returned to Russia and here I continue to create.

What inspired you to explore Impressionism and Realism in your work, and how do you balance these two styles?

Initially I tried to maximise the resemblance to the objects in my pictures. To achieve this resemblance, I carefully worked out details, repeating shapes, shadows and colours as deeply as I could. My work was definitely done in a realistic manner then. This changed dramatically when I discovered Impressionism.
My first introduction to Impressionism was during my student period of life in St Petersburg. Visiting museums, I looked in detail at how the great artists were able to express their vision through patches of colour and relief brushstrokes rather than fine detail. However, their paintings looked even more alive than classical landscapes, they just needed to look from a distance. Since my previous experience was connected with classical art school, I needed time to digest it all. These bold paste strokes, the incompleteness of the forms, sometimes just hints of them – it was all so new and unusual.
In the St. Petersburg and then Moscow museums I learnt the techniques of great Western artists – C. Monet, H. Matisse, V. Van Gogh, E. Degas, as well as Russian artists – K. Korovin, I. Levitan, V. Serov and others.
When I started painting in the manner of Impressionism, even trying to imitate the techniques learnt, I kept pointing out details in my works. It was a kind of mixing of styles.
While in France, I had the exceptional experience of being exposed to the greatest works of Impressionist and Realistic art. This allowed me to refine my technique and forced me to look for new forms and methods. To this day, I still pay as much attention to detail in my work as is appropriate.
So, I would describe my style of work as impressionistic with a touch of realism, and in each work, I balance these two styles. Some of my paintings look more impressionistic, while others have a noticeable amount of realism.

Vladimir Lebedev, Romantic sunset at the lake

Living in France for a decade, how did the country and its culture shape your artistic vision?

The first, longer part of the France period, I accumulated impressions, travelling around the country and beyond. Museums, cities, villages, nature – everything made a huge impression, but there was still a need for a little push to return to artistic creation.
To answer how France and its culture have influenced my vision of the artist, I would first quote one quite famous in Russia person. He said that ‘France is a country kissed by God’. And that is the best description of this country for me. It has influenced not only my vision of art, but also entered deeply into my soul, and became a part of me. In my youth, I learnt a lot about France. I loved French authors – A. Dumas, J. Verne, V. Hugo, G. de Maupassant and dozens of others. So, I was delighted to be able to see the places featured in their books, as well as places of historical events.
During the French period, I took the opportunity to visit the most famous museums and places where the impressionist artists stayed and worked (e.g. Barbizon, Pont-Aven, Giverny, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Saint-Tropez, Antibes, Moret-sur-Loing) and many famous sites in France – natural and artificial.
I visited the grandiose exhibitions held in Paris – the Morozovs’ Collection, E. Degas and E. Manet, I. Repin and many others.
In France I was impressed with many Russian traces, left by the masters – I. Pokhitonov, K. Korovin, M. Bashkirtseva, I. Pryanishnikov, M. Chagall and many others.
I think that France and its brilliant culture have so improved my artistic vision, feelings and inspiration as if I had graduated from an art school.

How do you choose the subjects and locations for your paintings? Are they based on personal experiences, emotions, or historical significance?

I collect subjects for paintings while travelling through the country. Vacation family trips were planned to visit significant natural and historical places. Each journey intended to explore the local sites in search of landmarks. Another source of inspiration was my business trips abroad, which I had a lot of and gathered new subjects. Also, I went to plein-air and sketched in Paris or around.
The main criterion for choosing the painting subjects is the depth of emotions. I always paint the places I have visited myself including sites connected to great artists. I imagined myself next to them watching his canvas turning into a painting.
Often, I just stop, look and enjoy the beauty of a place. It becomes so personal, so profound, that I feel the need to paint and share this place with others, this moment, light and shadows and breath of the life around me.

Vladimir Lebedev, Perfection of the dead and triumph of the living

As a self-taught artist, how did you develop your techniques and skills? Are there specific artists or movements that you studied or admired?

At the beginning, I used primitive techniques. Year after year I found ways to depict things – various surfaces, foliage, clouds or something else. Transferring from childhood to adolescence, I learnt how to operate various tools, how to work with paper, canvas, etc.
In museums and exhibitions, I looked as close as possible how artists made the strokes, reflecting shadows, texture or hues.
When working on my paintings, I tried to use my skills to better express my vision. Having no theoretical knowledge, I discovered the techniques used by artists (e.g., glazing, blending, wet and dry watercolour).
I learnt from my experiments that everything can be a painting surface or a tool, even your fingers, just try it.
I am still developing my specific techniques and hope to make it my individual one. I am still learning.
Of course, the great artists influenced my artwork – C. Monet, C. Pissarro, E. Manet, A. Sisley, K. Korovin, V. Van Gogh, B. Morisot, E. Degas and many others. One of the recent lessons was from the style of Robert Luton. I used his method in a couple of my works, la grattage sur le carton, and it was a very new experience for me.
So, I would characterise my techniques as something that is alive, evolving and growing. And I am still in search of my style.

What message or feeling do you hope to convey to viewers through your paintings?

As an artist, I express myself through available mediums in my work.
Through my art, I strive to convey the beauty of the sights I have encountered, transporting viewers to these magnificent places and evoking in them the same joy and inspiration they have brought me. My journey as a self-taught artist is one of observation, practice and love of art.
What I hope to convey to the viewers is: Please, forget about your work, politics, news and other daily activities. Feel the beauty of these sites through my eyes, discover or rediscover them. Let’s walk around together, see and enjoy the diverse of the world. Observe how the light and shadows play their game and present their magical patterns. View a landscape or an old town and imagine how incredible they were to me – the guy who was lucky enough to see them. Perhaps, you would feel them even more strongly than I did.
I will be glad if my humble efforts support your interest in these views. There may be something very important just a stone’s throw away from you.

Could you share a story about one of the paintings that holds special significance for you?

Since each of my works reflects my personal perception of the subject, I would say that almost all of them are meaningful to me.
However, I would single out one painting, ‘Young Girl in the Rue de Rivoli (Paris)’, created in early 2021.
It is the first painting created after a long artistic break, during Covid-19 pandemic, when I needed something to occupy myself besides my job. This painting acted as the kick-start to return to my artistic endeavors. It was therefore particularly meaningful to me.
In addition, I used some of my accumulated artistic knowledge and skills and realised my capacity to do it.
This painting carries a very strong emotional charge. It depicts a young Russian girl in a beautiful evening dress, appearing on the Rue de Rivoli in Paris in the deep evening after a school ball. She has just graduated from school, and it is her last walk with her classmates. They say goodbye to each other, but not only that. She freezes, turning half a corner back, as if she is about to turn around and say ‘bye’ to her childhood before taking her first step into another life.
This moment was so touching that I decided to capture and preserve it.

Vladimir Lebedev, Young girl at Rivoli Street (Paris)