About The Artist

I was born in 1987 in Riga, the capital of Latvia. This happened a year and a half after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. It is very likely that the gene mutation that occurred in my body was directly related to this terrible nuclear accident. Immediately after birth, I was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder - skeletal dysplasia, which caused abnormal development of my bones, joints and cartilage. I can hardly remember the first years of my life, only an endless series of surgical operations to restore and shape my legs, as well as huge heavy plaster boots in which I learned to take my first steps on the Earth. I somehow overcame this early life survival test. And I did not become embittered at life. Now I understand that only the immense love and support of my dear parents, as well as all the people around me at that time, kept in me hope and faith in a favorable future. So, it is no coincidence that my name "Vera" in Russian means exactly what is meant by "faith" in English. Also, these undeserved deprivations and difficulties shaped my character. In 1995, I was very lucky - my father took me to school and gave for education to his old friend the teacher-theorist Zeltserman B.A. He is the founder and permanent head of the pedagogical center for holistic developmental education of children "EXPERIMENT". The years of study at this school are remembered as the most meaningful and happy years of my life. It was really a pedagogical and social experiment that developed not only my bright personality, but also the skills and experience in teamwork for a given result. I started drawing my first pictures in the first grade of the school. In these pictures, the teachers found something special, because they handed me diplomas and sent me to republican and international school competitions. My professional drawing studies started in 2004. I acquired academic drawing method invented by Pavel Chistyakov in Ludmila Perets’s studio. The tempo of the learning process was very intensive – in nine month time we made a way from the very basics of drawing up to head anatomy and gypsum head portraying. Pavel Chistyakov’s method allows to enrich experience gained in the studio by sketching, copying great artist’s works, and making individual long-term drawings. In total, I attended Ludmila Perets drawing studio for four years. I started painting with oil paints in 2007, when I came to Alexander Pakhomov private painting studio. Influenced by the atmosphere of the studio, I became interested in the art of the 19th and 20th centuries and fell in love with it. At present, when I graduated from the painting department of the Latvian Academy of Arts, and became a professional artist, my love for the paintings of post-impressionist artists has become especially strong. I am often inspired by the artworks of some classical artists as Vincent van Gogh, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Edouard Vuillard, Albert Marquet and the Latvian artist Janis Valters. Among the more contemporary artists, my favorites are the following impressionists: Ivetta Lohmatova, Pavel Efanov. Most of all, I appreciate the coloristic beauty of their work, as well as the conviction of these artists that painting should be tied to real life - to object and form, to meaning and mood, to the purpose and subtleties of changing light, shadows and colors. I would like to highlight that a special place in my work is occupied by illustrations for children's books. I love to invent and draw fairy-tale characters, cute cheerful things, lively and humorous scenes, create a mood with the help of light, shadow and color. I try to make my illustrations cheerful and sunny. I already have five illustrated children's books in my professional luggage. Searching for my own path in painting took me a certain time. However, during last several years I have started feeling self-assured, as my artworks reached desired level of skillfulness and artistic approach, and I really started liking them. Now I look into the future with greater confidence, think over new creative plans, and expect fulfilling them ! More detailed information about my life and professional path can be found on my new website. There you can see what additional educational activities and programs I have completed, a full list of my solo and group art exhibitions, my involvement in international professional societies, as well as the main art galleries in which my works are located. But the primary purpose of creating this my new website is to present and share all the artworks I have created during my entire creative life. All the variety of ideas, styles and techniques implemented by me will be collected and shown here. You can see more than a thousand of my artworks in one place. Be patient and persistent to see it all. Website: https://www.verabondare.art