"Landscape painting is my dialogue with Mother Nature. I express my love and admiration, she tells me her stories and opens her secrets to me, allows me to use my artist licence, and thanks me for removing man-made objects from the scenery."

Time Keepers (Nightdreams of Yusupov Palace)

Svetlana Simeons

"I am a Russian Canadian, an active member of FCA. My first noteworthy piece of art was a graphite portrait of my karate coach, drawn at the age of 15. Then there were occasional, rare splashes of creativity throughout my life resulting in small pencil or watercolour pictures. It was six year ago that I started painting in oils, and my artistic genes had finally realized. I paint or plan to paint in all thematic genres except portrait."
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Assiniboine

Mount Lorette

You are a Russian Canadian - tell us about your early memories of art in Russia and how both cultures influence your work?
My mother was an art lover. There were about 40 large-format books on art at my home of childhood. Wherever we travelled together around Russia, my mother took me to the art museums. I was fortunate to see the original masterpieces both of the Russian and world art at the most prominent museums in Russia. Since my childhood I’ve been a citizen of the whole international world of art. So to tell you the truth, I’ve always perceived art as supra-culture beyond and above any country or ethnic boundaries. The beauty and strength of art is that it’s universal. It’s not the artist’s ethnic origin that attracts and influences me, instead it’s the artist’s philosophy and the quality of the artist’s work.

You have only been painting for six years. How have you developed your painting skills to a high level in such a short time?
Quality is a key concept of my art. I believe art is all about creating value. Suppose I want to make a gift to you, so money is not an issue; if I ask you to choose between a landscape photo and an accurate painting of the same landscape – which one would you choose? And if I ask you to choose between an accurate painting of a landscape and a reinterpreted artistic painting of the same view, more pleasing to your eye – which one would you choose? The latter. Why? Because there is more added value in them. As Phaedrus says in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, “Quality, value, creates the subjects and objects of the world”. Art and quality are two sides of the same, they create each other.

I am sad that at some art schools they now teach that quality is not important and that all you need is “to be creative, artistic and expressive” forgetting that the word “create” means “produce”, “art” means “skill” and “expression” means “press out” in Latin, which implies labour, knowledge, and keeping the viewer in mind. I still have along way to go to reach the quality I strive for. But I do my best, I keep on working on my paintings until I feel in harmony with them, when the view or idea that impressed me and wanted to be painted has been properly “pressed out” on my canvas. Like in the Scripture, “And God saw that it was good”. That’s the moment to achieve: when the creator and the creation become one.

My quality standards are changing with time, they grow with me growing. Quite often I revisit my works. Even if it is a five-year-old painting, I can remove the varnish and repaint a little detail. The only exceptions are my first landscape and my first still life. I heard that “fixing an old painting is like feeding a dead horse”. But I prefer to humbly follow the example set by Da Vinci, who kept working on Mona Lisa for about 15 years. In practical terms, I constantly learn and improve my painting techniques, with a dedication to honing my composition skills. I learn from the artists before me and invent my own techniques. On a funny note, when I go to the museums, I always lock my hands behind my back so that when the siren goes off the museum attendants could see that I have no intent in damaging the painting – such events happen because I tend to forget about the security rules when I get captivated by the artists’ mastery and when trying to explore the artists’ brushwork I approach the paintings too close.
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Athabasca Falls

Lake Moraine

"The beauty and strength of art is that it’s universal. It’s not the artist’s ethnic origin that attracts and influences me, instead it’s the artist’s philosophy and the quality of the artist’s work."

Cape Byron, Australia

Athabasca Canyon

How can this trend away from quality be reversed?
I believe that conceptual art is the highest form of artistic expression. But if void of quality it's like plain sugar. Food for brain? Absolutely. Yummy? Not even for a little child who prefers a flavourful candy to a spoonful of sugar, to say nothing of a gourmet. Don’t get me wrong. I am totally for the freedom of artistic expression. The problem starts when they try to convince me that plain sugar is all I need. It’s the viewer who suffers because some modern artists prefer to take an easy path and call an underpainting or a conceptual sketch a finished product because that’s how they feel it or probably are just unable to add quality to this stage. Such artists make art serve their selfish self-expression only, and not the needs of the society as it used to be. A part of the problem is that Value and cost have become different things. It’s only the collective (not just elite) consumer who can reverse this trend through being educated, having developed elevated taste, knowing the value, having self-respect and, yes, demanding quality. In practical terms, Fine Arts should be taught at secondary schools in such a way that the students understand the creative process and value of art product; and the museums, art galleries and art magazines should be funded by the governments for buying and exhibiting modern quality artwork.

​Tell us about your landscape paintings.
Landscape painting is my dialogue with Mother Nature. I express my love and admiration, she tells me her stories and opens her secrets to me, allows me to use my artist licence, and thanks me for removing man-made objects from the scenery.

Castle Mountain

"I am totally for the freedom of artistic expression. The problem starts when they try to convince me that plain sugar is all I need."

"Quality is a key concept of my art. I believe art is all about creating value."

Flamenco

Swallow's Nest, Crimea

Tell us about your still life paintings. 
Still life painting is my dialogue with myself and the viewers, and also provoking a dialogue of the viewers with themselves. My still lifes are usually thematic, story telling, philosophical and somewhat romantic, just as I am. I thoroughly compose them, and to make a story integral and convincing I get my painting subjects from all over the world.

​The Canadian Rocky Mountains feature prominently in your work. Please describe your connection with this area and why is it a rich source of inspiration.
If I told you that it's because I live in Calgary, which makes Kananaskis, Banff or Jasper reachable within a quick drive, it would be an evident fact but not the real truth. And the truth is that I chose Calgary because it is located within close proximity to the stunning Rocky Mountains. The Canadian Rocky Mountains are not just beautiful, they are magnetic and spiritual. I heard a professional traveller and film maker calling them a "place of force". They attract you, embrace you, and covenant you forever. And if you are an artist, you just cannot help yourself from trying to connect to this realm from within.

Spirit Island

"It’s only our art that can let us outlive ourselves."

"Still life painting is my dialogue with myself and the viewers, and also provoking a dialogue of the viewers with themselves."

Svetlana Simeons

​Share with us some of your proudest moments so far
Those moments are when my paintings are chosen for juried art shows. It happens often when I make submissions, which proves that I am on the right track. I started painting 6 years ago, and in the beginning it was a pursuit of "how-to" question. Then there was a long block and a "now what" question. I am thankful to Steven Pressfield and my Painting Angel who patiently kept - quoting Dali - "guiding my hand" through that difficult time and who is still with me. This can actually be my proudest achievement that I've made it through that block.
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Your motto is “Vita brevis, ars longa”, which means ‘Life is short, and art lasts”. Please explain.
“Why would a man need more than one woman? – Maybe because he fears death.” Those who understand this quote from the film Moonstruck will understand how my sadness caused by the transient nature of everything and especially of life propels my art. It’s only our art that can let us outlive ourselves. “Time fears the pyramids” not because the pyramids are made of stone, but because they are pieces of art made from stone. Every painting I make is an extension of my life. Every flower I paint keeps on living on my canvas. ​So seemingly a result of fearing death, for me, art is in fact a powerful means of celebrating life.

Pyramid Lake

Mistaya River

"Every painting I make is an extension of my life."

Forever

What is your favourite technique?
I usually paint alla prima, but the biggest fun is the Old Master’s method based on the working-up-from-grisaille principle, in which case I use a modified technique I invented myself. This method takes a much longer time but I love it for having Light as my co-author. You can appreciate the light-emitting effect created by this technique in my Flamenco and Red Rose paintings. That magic glow is worth the pain.
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​Share with us some of the feedback you have received received from fans of your work.
The best feedback was when at an art show a visitor gave out a very loud Wow! and swayed his arms when he saw a painting of mine. And the saddest was when a lady wrote me a long letter about how she admired my painting but could not afford buying it even at a considerably discounted price.


Website: www.simeons-art.com
www.instagram.com/svetlanasimeons

Born in the USSR