Take an egg shaped wooden blank, a pencil and make a sketch of any building you like …, then try to add some smaller buildings, monuments, so that it looks like a real city. Don’t forget to cover the whole surface of your wooden blank …
That’s exactly what a young Russian artist Dennis Birkin is brilliant at. He paints cities of the world on wooden blanks. His portfolio includes Venice, Florence, Rome, Madrid, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and London. As his key objects, the artist chooses most famous and beautiful buildings of a city and brings these buildings to the front of his painting, cosily surrounding them with minor buildings, monuments etc. Brining large objects to the front (cathedrals, Kremlin, Abbeys etc.) makes his works so very appealing – large objects are very well «read» from quite a big distance. They beckon you to come closer and take a closer and study every feature. Impossible it is not to mention this special scrupulous approach to details: even most tiny little elements on the building (e.g., on Dodge palace in Venice) look so very impressive. No doubt, the artist enjoys this very much, and the looker feels the same.
Architectural theme has not been chosen completely out of the blue. Years ago Dennis graduated from the Moscow Architectural Institute. Perfect knowledge of architecture allows Dennis to place his objects stunningly well balanced all over the actually quite limited and difficult shape. The artist gives preference to large forms, which, as he thinks, allows the looker to feel the energy of the city, the mood and splendour. One should possess exceptional talent and concentrate very hard when working with such a complicated shape: because of its elliptical form it is extremely important to make out the size and lay-out of large objects, so that they don’t look like they are falling and have straight lines. Work with egg shapes commits you to make your painting proportional, three-dimensional and real, giving the eclectical panorama closeness and logical finality. Dennis seems to perfectly observe all the peculiarities, so that no matter on what side of the egg shape you are looking at you can always see a perfectly straight building in front of you, which of course makes a splendid impression.
Apart from the looker, the artist has his own priorities. For instance, colour score is number one on Dennis’s list. You don’t need to strain your eyes to see that the artist uses certain sets of colours for every city he paints. The choice of these colours comes in perfect harmony with the details and opens yet another way to feel the inner energy of the city as well as the painting as a whole.
For Saint Petersburg Dennis has chosen blue and grey and various shades of these colours, pointing out just few dominating objects (2 red columns). Such combination of colours is not by chance: these colours perfectly match this Northern city and, if we go back to its history, softly emphasize the splendour of the city.
As for Venice, the artist has chosen green, yellow and brown colours, giving the painting a shade of mysticism. Unostentatious colours and their shades delicately remind us of the historical events of one of the most mysterious and significant cities of the world.
It is very peculiar that in his works Dennis uses just 3-4 major colours and their shades. He feels the mood of the city, carefully choosing most suitable colours, trying to show the inner beautifulness of the city. Such modesty in colours once again emphasizes what really matters to the artist – it is the city itself, its buildings, mood… not flaming colours. However absence of flaming colours does not make Dennis’s works look faint or less interesting. On the contrary, it gives the paintings that magnetic attractiveness and intelligence. One can’t but notice lack of black colour in the artist’s works. He doesn’t use it and one might think that it’s not reasonable. Perhaps for Saint Petersburg or Venice black colour would be more than appropriate… Nevertheless this can’t be regarded as a drawback: if Dennis had used more black, perhaps his works would have lost that wonderful charm.
Number two on Dennis’s list is composition. He takes just 2-3 major objects and a lot of smaller ones, but you don’t get the impression that the painting is overloaded. Playing with objects and not sticking to exact location is not revolting, visa versa – its catches your eye. The special allure in works of this artist is the original style: you will never see any building in his works standing as it is in real life. That is not something the artist is after. He is after harmony and balance and it only proves his high professionalism.
Surprisingly, there is yet another interesting detail: Dennis almost never paints any bushy trees. Architecture is his passion – he wants us to see the beautiful facades of most famous buildings and it would have been a crime to place bushy trees in the front. That is why, even if he does paint trees, they remain with almost no leaves.
Overall Dennis Birkin’s work leaves the looker with a very bright and unforgetable impression. They gratify looker’s eye and soul. Architecture placed on such an unusual shape attracts admiring looks. Having once seen one of his works, it thrills you so much that you can think of nothing else – you become obsessed with desire to take a closer look at all features. You feel like you are taking a walk inside the city that you are looking at …It seems that you have already seen everything, studied each and every detail of the painting, but you still want to look at it more and more.
Tatiana Titova