Konstantin Sterkhov

watercolor artist, tutor, curator graduated from the Repin Academy of fine Arts; 

member of St Petersburg Watercolour society, Finnish Watercolour society, Russian Artists’ Union; 

juror and curator of International exhibition; 

author of bestseller book series “Masters of Watercolor”;  author of numerous video courses on watercolor technique; participant of over 200 group  and 10 solo exhibitions; brand ambassador of Daniel Smith paints, St Cuthberts Mill paper, Roubloff brushes, White NIghts paints; his painting works grace numerous museum, corporate and private collections around the World.

 

Without any exaggeration, Konstantin Sterkhov is one of the most prominent figures in Russian watercolor, and his merits are not measured by personal artistic achievements only.

Konstantin Sterkhov conducted interviews with his colleagues and published in his blog and a book series “Masters of watercolour”, so that readers in his country might become acquainted with the world’s brightest stars in watercolor -  English-speaking watercolorists with Russian masters without intermediaries, through their direct speech. 

Today, some of their names are considered iconic in the watercolor world, when in fact, a few years ago they were not even known to many in Russia - it was Konstantin who has had the honour to present some of the most prominent watercolorists to the Russian Art society. 

As an artist, K. Sterkhov combines two seemingly contradictory features: he is extremely receptive and very constant. Receptivity and flexibility are probably connected with his willingness to try anything new in Art. That is why the works created in India, China, and Finland are very different. And the differences relate not only to the artistic means that the artist chooses to convey the coloring of another country. 

No, Konstantin also takes, to some extent, some technical and philosophical aspects of other watercolor traditions, enriching his own style. His artistic repertoire is flexible and varied as well. Sterkhov doesn’t confine himself to one or several genres. 

Portrait, landscape, still life, genre works, animalism – he is keen on everything, and everything he paints skillfully. Sometimes, new subjects enter his work, as a tribute to a performer’s excitement, when one wants to paint what other masters do - the things one hasn’t tried before. Having received a solid academic art education, Konstantin, nevertheless, pays much attention to achieving the maximum ease in watercolor painting, “spontaneity”, as they say - to attain a balance between one’s own intention and a random watercolor effect. Sometimes, with his own works he seems to confirm the postulate held at many master classes: the nature of watercolor painting is such that it is possible to solve interesting problems and express oneself without fundamental skills, using skillfully the simplest means.

Moreover, Sterkhov is an excellent draughtsman, who is not only able to grasp the characteristic, but who seeks completeness, sharpness and entirety - even in the sketches. 

Paying tribute to the liberated watercolor with a fragmentary composition, with an emphatically “impressionistic” incompleteness, Konstantin invariably returns to creating works that require from him, as an artist, a maximum output, involving the full range of his skills: working with thoughtful compositions, masterfully executed drawings, and well-grounded plots. 

It may be that precisely in the diverse combination of graphic certainty and structural complexity of the image (which is sometimes lost in water painting) with the expressive means of “fluid” watercolor, where lies the potential for his development as a unique artist.

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Saint Petersbourg
www.sterkhovart.com
sterkhovart@gmail.com