I believe in  power and  importance of the Art in the human civilization. I have dedicated myself to the realistic and new-romantic art movement, creating illusionary reality inside the frame.

I follow the European realistic tradition in Art  This is why I'm able to paint not only portraits but also figurative alegorical and historical pieces of art that is emotionally tune with the time. However, I love experimenting with the styles and paints! You can find both fantasy figurave art and artworks abstract and free style.
My fields in the Art are portraiture, allegorical, historical and religious compositions.
I was born in 1984 in Tver, Russia and I'm the only child of passionate but unhappy love of my parents, Cuban  Raul Santana that came from the Spanish refugees family and Ukrainian economist, living and working in Tver, Valentina Scherbak. Some people from my father's family has become refugees in US. My early years I spent in a nice international atmosphere of the big culturally developed cities partly in Tver and partly in Holguín, Cuba. The first impression of Art I received from the children's book illustrated by famous Russian artists in a fresh watercolor realistic style. Unfortunately, my parents divorced and I suffered from bad health in a cold humid climate so we had to immigrate to Ukraine with my mom. Immigration is not an easy thing!

Then I discovered the paintings of Raphael that became my first unforgettable sense of vocation for art, then Russian and Ukrainian painters like Ivan Kramskoi, Valentin Serov, Mikhail Vrubel, Taras Shevchenko, Carl Brullov became my favourite artists forever.   After feeble attempts to copy them with a pencil, decided to study at the art school at the age of 12. I had studied at the realistic art school for 5 years with the best art instructor in all the region, Nina Korsun. My paintings took first place in youth festivals in Ukraine and Russia.

As it often happens to the artists, my mom's family was against artistic education and I had to give up painting and studied Classical philology at the Tarasa Shevchenko's National University. However, studying Ancient Roman and Greek poetry, Philosophy, Languages, Art and Mythology changed my mind and it always gives me endless sources of artistic ideas.

  For 4 years I've studied portrait, figurative drawing and painting in the Academy of Realistic Art of Sviatoslav Brakhnov. And then I studied to get MA  in Fine Arts in the department of Monumental Art in the Institute of Art and Design in Kyiv in 2018.

Human's life is the centre of my artistic point of view. Human beings, with our inner emotional life, the beauty of diversity and something that unites all of us. I look for the simplicity and unspoken poetry in my paintings. I  like experimenting with styles, approaches that depend on the artistic purposes of the paintings. After graduation from my university, I discovered a great interest in mythological, allegorical, historical and religious compositions. Thus, I became part of the contemporary realistic figurative movement.

Since 2016 I have created an art atelier "Real Art Vision" and  I have combined my study with working as an independent artist. I have created more than 60 portraits and several academic copies that are kept in private collections throughout the world but mostly in the USA.

When I have some spare time I write poetry in Russian and Spanish languages, short stories and articles dedicated to art.

 

My paintings don't refer to any political issues, they just express the idea of humanity and love. You mustn´t use any of my artwork for political advertising or any other political issue! I do not belong to any political party or organisation.

Please, note that all images and texts are under the strict copyright
Thank you