Dan Petrov Exhibit

Dan Petrov is a classically trained and educated art teacher and independent studio artist with 25 years of experience. His goal for students is to learn and develop an understanding of all formal elements of visual representation with special focus on traditional oil painting techniques. Dan emphasizes Renaissance and Flemish Oil Painting Methods and modern forms of Alla Prima painting to develop fundamental skills for contemporary expression in painting. His work has been viewed in over twenty solo shows and exhibitions, as well as group shows and exhibitions by selected artists, in Europe, Canada, and the United States. At his Lakeville studio he accepts portrait commissions for corporations and individual clients as well as paintings in genres of still life, landscape and figures for galleries.

Dan Petrov’s exhibit will be on display Friday, October 24^th – Friday, December 5^th .

Artist Statement

My interest in oil painting formed very early with the realization that painting simultaneously takes me in three different directions: into the world, into the painting process, and into the introspective process. It became obvious that technical skills of observation and application were paramount for visual expression and that is the reason that my painting practice was deeply rooted in Renaissance and Flemish Oil Painting Method combined with some contemporary aspects of Direct Painting Method. Realism is still the most productive way of conveying the ideas, demonstrates the highest respect to the viewer, and provides clarity of articulation of visual language. My daughter Mia explained that in her school as a five years old, “my dad paints things that look like things and people that look like people”. In Still Life genre objects are not just the forms that receive the light. These paintings are conveying our existential relation to the nature and production that is in function of our sustenance and life. It also elevates our perception from mundane and ordinary to the level of beauty. If we think about still life painting as a tool of transcendence of daily life, we cultivate a higher experience of reality. In genres of portrait and figure I am interested in exploring aspects of the human condition, individuality, character, themes and feelings of impermanence, loss, grief, uncertainty, and choices that are optimistic beyond the shallow feeling of happiness and directed to the meaning of individual and collective.

Artist reception will take place Friday, November 7^th at the Plymouth Community Center from 6:00pm-7:30pm.