Andrey Nesterenko

The start of the pandemic in Ukraine coincided with my Master studies. During the lockdown, I faced difficulties in collecting material for my diploma painting. Among them, the lack of access to a workshop at the academy (I had to do painting at home in a small room, which was very inconvenient considering the size of the canvas: 2.45 x 3 m).

Also, the lack of transport and the inability to buy the necessary materials for creativity. However, I had an idea of work, thanks to the fact that I conceived to show the celebration of Easter in Ukraine back in 2017 and have already collected material from that time. Online consultations with my supervisor helped me create the intended composition. I was able to transport the painting to the academy 3 weeks before the defence and have time to finish it, after the quarantine was relaxed. I received praise from the painting department for it. The painting is now in the Kharkov diocese in the Holy Intercession Monastery. I needed to make a set of sketches of people to painting a diploma.

And with the advent of masks, I saw how emotionally loaded a person is. I began to strive to convey those feelings, mood and experiences of a person in my sketches. I tried to understand what a person is thinking at this moment when I sketch, and tried to convey this in my works. I made sketches with what I had, due to the impossibility of buying art materials, during the lockdown. I took out abandoned coloured pencils, oil pastels that I had not used for a very long time. At first, I made sketches with a simple pencil, then I began to introduce colour, my friends, followers on Instagram and myself liked it.

This laid the foundation for my further experiments.