Dear Wladimir, thank you for taking time for an interview with us! We are happy to welcome you at HAZEGALLERY. Tell us please about yourself and your path to the art world.
Dear HAZEGALLERY, I feel honored for the invitation! Since my childhood, I had a passion for art and tried out different mediums. Painting is the most beautiful medium in which I can express my art and surrealism helps me to translate my messages. I’m highly interested in self-development and therefore my works are also focused on this topic.
You were born in Pavlodar, Kasachstan. Can you describe your childhood and how there is a situation with art in your city? Do people go to museums and is it popular to be keen on any art directions?
It’s right that I was born in Kasachstan but we moved to Germany when I was a little child, so I don’t have a lot of memories about the culture there. But I know from my parents that the relationship to art was pretty similar to the German one. Both of my parents are good in drawing and supported my art journey.
As we know, you were inspired by Dali and Mike Dragas. Tell us about the moment when you saw their art for the first time and what impression did you get?
I saw Dali’s best-known work ’The Persistence of Memory’ for the first time in middle school and I remember how understood I felt. At that time it was the most interesting way for artistic expression that I’ve ever seen. When I saw Mike Dargas’ work on Instagram for the first time I was completely blown away and emotionally touched. It still amazes me how precise he works with oil paint.
What is surrealism for you? Why did you choose exactly this art movement to express yourself?
Surrealism is the most precise way to express how my mind works. I feel very exited with every surreal artwork that I create, because I often add or change details of the painting during the process. Although those are just small changes they have a huge impact on the final atmosphere. And I love to look at other’s surreal artworks and see what images they come up with.
Now you live in Germany. Why did you move and how was it reflected on your art?
Since I can’t really remember how we moved, it didn’t had a big impact on my artistic development.
How did the experience of living in different countries influence your mindset and life philosophy?
I was just born in Kasachstan but I grew up in Germany.
What are your main sources of inspiration? Do you prefer creating spontaneously or is it more about preparing the things in advance?
It’s a mix of both. Sometimes an idea is swirling in my head for a couple of months and I need to experiment and figure out how the the image will work out. Other paintings just emerge spontaneously and everything works out as I imagined.
Meditation is definitely a main source for my images. But I also look for inspiration on Instagram and I like to try out new techniques that I see there.
Your paintings are very bright and vibrant. How do you work with colours and materials?
For me the perfect contrast is key to a satisfying painting. Often I have a rough vision of what colors I’m going to use before I start painting, but a lot of it comes intuitively during the process. Black is a very powerful color, but I try to avoid to use it for the darker parts of my paintings.
And although I prefer oil and gouache paint, I also like to experiment with different materials and develop my art skills.
How do you think the art world will shape in the future?
I think that even more will take place in the digital world and I’m happy that digital artist already have possibilities to sell their digital artworks. That doesn’t mean that traditional art will disappear, they’ll just have a balanced coexistence. I can already see how modern technologies help traditional artists to create amazing art.
How has covid affected you and your art? How do you think the art world will shape in the future?
Covid had a positive impact on my art for sure. I’ve spend even more time on creating art than I already did before and it helped me to deal with the changes and difficulties of our current situation. There are still a lot of projects planned that I couldn’t turn into reality yet, so stay tuned for my future artworks!
Instagram Wladimir Timler @wladimir_timler