Seraphim, 2022

Igor Volkov-Tkachinskiy  

The painting presents the image of a Seraphim — not a gentle celestial messenger, but a formidable, unsettling guardian. His figure seems to emerge from the darkness of a brown background that evokes earth, dust, and suspended time. Deep, saturated blue oil paint laid over this warm base creates a palpable tension — the cold of the heavens colliding with the weight of earthly reality.

Executed in an expressive manner, the work is filled with sharp, impulsive brushstrokes, splashes of paint, and intentional incompleteness. The fragmented forms and unresolved elements generate a sense of movement . This Seraphim does not soothe — he warns. His presence feels like a sign, a call to awareness, a demand for inner readiness.

Created several months before the full-scale war in Ukraine began, the painting now reads as prophetic. It carries an intuitive foreboding of catastrophe, yet also a quiet resilience. The blue is not only the color of the sky, but of depth, memory, and restrained determination.

This is an image of warning.
An image of anticipation.
An image of spiritual vigilance at the edge of historical rupture.