The Palette of Life
By Marina Kochetova

How can one measure the life of an artist? What standards can embrace it? Where are the defeats? Where are the losses? What is evil, what is good? Wherein lies grace? It is far more difficult to place a person of art within any sort of framework than it is to frame his works. Yet the palette of life of creative people is far brighter and more varied than that of everyone else.

There is a common belief that an artist is not a profession, but a state of soul. However, professional skills acquired in a specialized educational institution, multiplied by life experience, only expand the horizons of artistic talent, and with the years the palette of colours in an artist’s work expands as well. This is exactly what has happened with Pyotr Shvartsman, who for many years has been well known to Russian-speaking residents of Ottawa, Montreal, and many others.

Writers often give their characters meaningful surnames. In life, surnames do not always correspond to the characteristics and qualities of their bearers. In German, “schwar” means “black.” Nevertheless, in the palette of life of the titled artist Pyotr Shvartsman, black is absent, and Pyotr himself is a radiant and bright person. He has lived in Ottawa since 1979, yet considers himself a citizen of the world, since he travels extensively. But let us not get ahead of ourselves.

Pyotr was born in Moscow. His childhood passed during difficult years, yet his memories of it are vivid and warm, and so the palette of childhood turned out bright as well. As a child, he often copied paintings he liked. From the age of ten, he regularly attended an art studio in Minsk, where his family had moved. After finishing eleven years of school (in those days Soviet schools had eleven grades), he entered the architecture department of the civil engineering faculty at the polytechnic institute, which became the young man’s first great achievement. With a competition of 175 applicants per place, preference was usually given to graduates of specialized technical colleges rather than ordinary secondary schools. Applicants were often filtered out in the technical drawing exam, where they were given deliberately difficult tasks requiring specific skills that were not taught in regular schools. Yet applicant Shvartsman succeeded! He also mastered the institute’s curriculum, remaining the best student throughout all his years of study, and upon graduation was allowed to choose any design institute for employment at his own discretion. Pyotr earned this privilege in part thanks to the success of his diploma project, which won not merely a republican but an all-Union competition for graduating architects. Just a couple of months after graduating from university—whereas this usually took three years—the young specialist became a member of the Union of Architects of the Byelorussian SSR, and soon after joined its Board, which undoubtedly added brightness to the palette of his life and raised the self-esteem of this creative personality.

The exceptional talent of Pyotr found further confirmation when he received first prize at an international art competition in Italy, where he spent a little over a year before emigrating permanently to Canada. His victory in the competition, in which all participants had to depict the Palazzo di Ceri (40 kilometres from Rome) on canvas within a limited time, came as a great surprise to him. This competition was traditionally held every year, and foreigners had never before won it. Yet suddenly an unknown Pietro with a surname difficult for Italians to pronounce, and without a work permit in that beautiful European country of painters—unlike the numerous local contestants who had studied the famous architectural monument like the back of their hands and painted it from the hill after choosing favourable spots there—outwitted them all by choosing not the hill but a place inside one of the arches of the fortress wall. His attempt to look at the historic structure with fresh eyes and from a new angle proved successful.

And I continue my story about Pyotr Shvartsman by inviting readers to look at him with fresh eyes and from an unusual angle. Of course, you have heard of him. Perhaps you even know him. But do you know, for example, that Pyotr is an excellent cook, whose palette of prepared dishes delights the eye, lifts the spirits, not to mention the benefits and refinement of this food and its благотворное influence on the human body? Do you realize, dear readers, that while continuing to work as an architect to this day, Pyotr is engaged in architectural design? This probably explains why many of his paintings depict remarkable examples of world architecture.

Let us return to painting. Pyotr brought only four of his works with him to Canada. Now there are hundreds! And that is despite the sad fact that sixty of his best paintings were stolen by an American art dealer who turned out to be an experienced fraudster. It happened in the United States... Participation in dozens of group and solo exhibitions held in Canada, the United States, Russia, France, Italy, Chile, and Argentina added many winning shades to the palette of the Master’s life. It is better to see once than to hear a hundred times—especially when paintings are concerned. So I set off to enjoy the works of artist P. Shvartsman at his home, where, besides the paintings, many unusual household objects and souvenirs from different corners of the planet are collected, including, for example, a unique collection of pitchers. This is not merely a house-museum. It is a true place of power!

There are many places in nature where the energy of exalted feelings accumulates and is preserved. After all, everything in this world is built on the exchange of energy. To strengthen it, many people travel to places where such energy, concentrated, charges visitors. These are seas, mountains—unquestionably sources of energy. Without contact with them and mutual exchange of energy with the forces of nature, a person withers. Creations of human hands can also become places of power in their own way. I would include museums, theatres... and the hospitable home of the generous host named Pyotr Shvartsman. Naturally, his studies at the architecture institute did not pass without leaving a trace: architectural subjects prevail on the artist’s canvases—individual buildings, panoramas of streets and squares, in various styles. Since, say, a city is a creation not of nature but of man, it may be built up in entirely different ways. An inhabited apartment usually differs from an uninhabited one by the abundance of objects and their arrangement. In old, stylish cities, any novelty causes bewilderment, while in overbuilt ones such as New York or Moscow, on the contrary, everything is digested and absorbed by the abundance of styles.

In my opinion, the quality of a city is determined by the number of cosy spots where one wishes to linger, slowly absorb the strength of these corners, which then become unforgettable. Artist Pyotr Shvartsman is very skilled at identifying such places and conveying them on canvas in watercolour, oil, or mixed media. Immersion in his work makes it possible to notice the nuances of the most fascinating places on Earth—details that an ordinary traveller might never notice during an in-person visit. But the sharp eye of an observant artist misses nothing. At times he is not satisfied with the boundaries of the ordinary and boldly steps beyond them, unafraid of shocking art lovers. Pyotr is charismatic. In communication, charismatic people do not compete and do not try to please everyone. They respect the views of others, yet remain true to their own opinion without imposing it on those around them. Such is P. Shvartsman. He is self-sufficient. Self-sufficiency allows him not to feel the need for the approval of others, not to depend on someone else’s opinion, nor to orient himself toward accepted standards and rules. Therein lies his strength! And where is HIS place of power? I think there are several such places in the world.

Pyotr loves to travel very much: to visit new places and to return to those already familiar. Returning to familiar places, like rereading favourite books, delights no less than discovering new ones. Pyotr has been to Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Egypt, Jordan, Nepal, Thailand, Israel, China, Brazil, Mexico... The geography of his travels is constantly expanding, because what draws the artist onward is a close contemplation of the variety of human ways of life. Yet it is Italy, France, and the Czech Republic that he longs to return to. Shvartsman’s favourite city is Prague. Pyotr also likes New York. Writer O. Henry, who adored New York, believed that “there is more poetry in one New York block than in twenty daisy-covered fields.” Some are inspired more by nature, others by cities. The hero of my story today is probably inspired by everything unusual, and sets himself the task of discerning that unusual quality in everything. That is why he remains forever young, cheerful, energetic, and open to new impressions... I met him at a performance by Pina Bausch’s contemporary dance theatre, of whose work Pyotr is not in fact an admirer. Yet he prefers to stay on the crest of change, to feel the breath of time, to refresh his perspective on what is happening, to recharge himself with energy so that, having passed it through himself, he may charge others with it as well—including his students (yes, Pyotr still regularly gives painting lessons in his studio to this day), continuing to enrich the palette of his life with ever new colours.