Anton Pavlenko

Anton Pavlenko (1984-) was born and raised in eastern Ukraine until 1990 when his family immigrated to the United States and settled in northern Oregon. A self-taught oil painter, Anton was always a creative child but did not start taking art seriously until his adolescent years when he began to make master copies of early Soviet-era and California Impressionist paintings. Nowadays Anton is based in Portland, OR, and creates plein-air, or on location, oil paintings on canvas of up to 36 by 48 inches that often find themselves reimagined in the studio in even larger dimensions. For him there is something that transfers well between plein-air and studio pieces. Perhaps it is the emotional investment in painting a landscape twice that gives his work its depth.

His process is simple: he hops into his car and figures out where he is going as he is driving. He knows it will be a Northern Pacific landscape, maybe filled with trees or a body of water. When he gets there, sometimes he listens to the songs of the landscape he is painting–the rushing stream or the wind dancing through the leaves–other times to an audiobook to ground his emotions, or even to classical music if he is seeking an energy boost.

His pieces are all worth seeing in person. Up close one notices the haphazard, short, marbled strokes scattered among varying colors. Drips of paint dry, as if frozen in time like fossils, and hang from the canvas, showcasing the vulnerable authenticity of Anton’s efforts.

Anton has been featured in various magazines, won 30 awards, and been interviewed on PBS. His work can be found in five different galleries, four in Oregon and one in Arizona, and he exhibits his art regularly across the Pacific Northwest.

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