Andrei Petrov

Andrei Petrov's paintings combine nature with mythological and historical references, assembled into a personal interpretation that almost invariably drifts away from any clear figurative representation. 
Color and light are the main building blocks of an imagination neither representational nor completely diverted from links to the real world.
Nature and landscapes will often come to the surface only to entice the viewer back into a magical abstraction of voluptuous colors.The heritage of Petrov's Russian roots resonates in his consistent use of luscious purple, blue, and red hues.

He writes: "In my approach two roads are taken: a natural, Hudson River School path of light and drama filled grandeur that encounters energetic animated gestures, muscular surfaces, and bold strokes familiar in Abstract Expressionism.Beneath numerous glazes and opalescent layers swaths of paint dash about this stage and often emerge from the lower depths of which there are many levels.

Freezing the action allows a probing slow-motion breakdown of the components that comprise the canvas. Think of a frozen lake: leaves, twigs, nuts, fish are all suspended in ice at different depths and angles.

Piercing the surface, thick islets of paint interrupt a placid color field and create vast non-linear perspective from the root to the fruit of the gesture. Tension is created by the juxtaposition of animated bursts of paint with the slow contemplative layering found in paintings of the Hudson River School. The invitation to explore this amber-like world is now extended. Sometimes the brush is mightier than the pen."