The exhibition of drawings by Sergei Estrin became the first exposition of a new cycle entitled "Architect's Hobby" - an initiative of the owner of the Unique Floors gallery Fyodor Beloborodov. In total, it featured about 20 graphic works made in different techniques: both traditional (pen, dry brush, charcoal, washing, pastel, felt-tip pens), and unique ones, which include painting with copper leaf and drawing on foil. As Sergei Estrin himself told Archi.ru, drawing for him is precisely a hobby, and in this sense the exhibition most closely matches the name of the entire cycle. “If it were a commercial job, then everything is simple: I used several well-established techniques,“set up”as many works as possible and go ahead, sell. But I find the main charm in the fact that you can not drive anywhere and try different techniques. With a pen, brush, cigarette butt or stick - in a word, whatever comes to mind. You can even artistically set fire to paper. I always want to try something new - material, technique. When the experiment is successful, I experience incredible satisfaction and drive. For example, it turned out that silver foil on a black background looks very expressive."
Estrin is happy to share her findings and discoveries. So, at a recent lecture at the Union of Architects (within the framework of the ArchiGraphics competition), he told the audience with great enthusiasm about all the methods he uses. “I myself would love to go to master classes,” the architect admits. “Unfortunately, most of the master classes are limited to showing certain techniques, while I really want development and diversity.”
Such an unexpected facet of drawing was demonstrated within the framework of this exhibition. At the opening, with a large gathering of guests - colleagues, friends and partners of the architect - a defile took place: a show of dresses, blouses and bags, painted by Sergei. According to him, fabric is a very special material on which paint behaves in a completely different way. And ready-made drawings on clothes, in motion, are perceived differently - for example, the perspective of the street opens up unexpectedly, leaving in the cut of the fabric. Estrin is sure: it is impossible to achieve such an effect when painting fabric, from which a dress will be sewn only later, so he applies his drawings to ready-made things, without sketches and substrates for fabric. “Sketches are never done. This is a special feeling "a la prima" - when the idea that you have in your head and hand is immediately transferred to the base. If you first transfer the drawing to fabric, and then circle it, then everything is lost - it will turn out not alive, without a soul."
It is interesting that the artist often uses paint for painting fabric for graphic works, distributing it with a palette knife. And again it turns out very interesting: the material manifests itself from an unexpected side - the opaque paint, when pressed with a palette knife, becomes transparent and forms picturesque, textured strokes.
The works presented at the exhibition are united by architectural themes: "portraits" of specific buildings and cities, as well as collective and fantasy images - from medieval streets to megacities of the future. Another common feature of all Sergey Estrin's drawings is monochrome. “Color is a very strong and interesting technique, but I have not yet exhausted the full depth of polychrome for myself, while such works seem to me more expressive and integral. Perhaps later I will do something in color, but in some other form,”says the author. However, a couple of bright works with oil pastels were nevertheless included in the exposition - painted in almost neon color, they became an experience for the architect in a new technique.
It is not so important whether Sergey Estrin draws thoroughly cozy streets of old cities or shows the perspective with expressive spots, without contours: in all his works he retains the main thing - a sharp eye, sincere curiosity and passion for comprehending a new space, usually man-made, which is the most important for an architect. close also from a professional point of view.
