Artist Biography

Kreydun, Alexey



“I don’t think that someone can be an accomplished modern artist without having studied the patterns of representational arts that have gone before. A modern artist should not be content with emulating the great. He should process the creative experience of the past, and then create something that’s unmistakably his own.” And Alexy should know. This remarkable artist studied at the Academy of Art, visiting the Hermitage and the Russian Art Museums regularly. His focus was on replicating the painting techniques of the old masters and perfecting his technique. He tells us further, “I have always preferred the old masters, from whom I have learned a lot. I am in love with Durer, Vermeer, Caravaggio, Ingres, Velazquez, Rubens, Pieter Claesz, Willem Kalf, Willem Claesz Heda and many other masters.”

Since his Academy days his ability to paint in the style of the old masters has kept him busy with commissions, specializing in paintings in the genre of the Dutch Masters and enabled him to enjoy a popular independent practice. He is also currently a Headmaster at the Artistic Industrial Academy, training young students.

Born on November 27, 1962 in Alchevsk, Lugansk Region,Ukraine, Alexey Grigorjevich Kreydun attended primary and secondary schools in his home village, then went on to study at the Ludansk State Art College. There he earned a Diploma of Painting and Drawing.

Following his graduation from the State Art College the army stole Kreydun away from his art for three years before he returned home to work as a designer and, in 1990, to continue his studies. Gaining admittance to the State Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in St. Petersburg he studied hard perfecting his abilities and techniques and went on to the Academy of Art to become a student of the Restoration Department. In 1996, Kreydun graduated from the Academy of Art earning the Diploma of Oil Painting Artist – Restorer of the Second Category.

Kreydun’s diploma works were held in high regard by his professors resulting in his selection to do the restoration of the painting “Cavalrymen’s Stopping Place”, France XVIIIc. The reviewer of his diploma work on restoration was Yevgeniy Nickiforovich Gerasimov. Gerasimov was a collaborator of the State Hermitage Museum and artist-restorer of the highest category in addition to being head of the restoration group, which renewed “Danaya” by Rembrandt.