Painting talent from our village
We present to you, the villager of Pristava nad Stično, Aleksander Jefim, a 26-year-old boy who had the opening of a painting exhibition in Dolenjski Toplice last weekend. Specifically, in Sitar’s house. The exhibition is on display until the end of February. He exhibited with his painter friend Anita Stupar, a native of Dolenjski toplice.
1. A. considering that we grew up together on Pristava nad Stično, I find it really surprising that I didn’t know about you, that you paint so beautifully. When did this artistic streak of yours manifest itself and when did it start to develop?
A painterly streak, I couldn’t say when it started to show. Somehow, I’ve been good at drawing since I was little. In high school, painting was put on the sidelines. Then, while studying at the Faculty of Chemistry, I started painting again. Of course, I have to say that my friend, who is a painter, also helped with this.
2. I would like to know which motif was the first one you painted?
I don’t remember exactly the first motif, but mostly all motifs are related to nature. Mainly because I live in the hills and am very connected to nature, I admired the mountains every day. The harbor above Stično was the inspiration for the nature paintings, for sure.
3. What drives you to paint, how do you feel when you paint?
I like to walk in nature, where in my head I put together a kind of collage of different pictures that I saw on a walk, later a sketch or a whole picture appears in my head, like a flashback.
When painting, first of all there is some frustration in my head because of the composition of the picture, I am not relaxed at all, because I do not know if I will be able to draw this idea that I have created in my head. When I see that I am doing well, that the picture in my head resembles the picture on the canvas, I start to enjoy it. All this gives me the impetus for more pictures. Of course, failures also happen. I started painting many pictures but never finished them.
4. What values drive you to your painting?
I can’t say that I am driven by values, but I can say that I am driven by feeling, the desire to create. The values that are important to me are related to my Christian faith, but that doesn’t mean that I want to convey some teachings and teach people about something through my pictures. I just want them to relax with my pictures. At the same time, I am afraid that you would recognize some of my weak points in the pictures. But so far only I know about them.
5. Many painters do not sell their works of art, but instead give them away, because they believe that by doing so they would be selling a part of themselves. What is your opinion on this?
I completely understand artists who don’t want to sell their artwork, but I don’t look at it that deeply myself and would like to sell a painting at some point. However, there is still a long way to go, because I am too critical or I think that some picture will expose me. However, so far I have found that I am very good at hiding my nakedness through painting.
6. As far as I know, the study is not dedicated to painting but to chemistry, correct me if this is not the case. Why such a decision.
It’s true, chemistry is a very interesting science, I don’t regret the decision to study it. However, I don’t see myself in chemical waters in the long run. I started attending a drawing course in September. I also want to draw some kind of portrait, but for that I need some knowledge and not just talent.
We can certainly expect some painting work in the future. We are already looking forward to it.
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