One morning when Oleg Mansurov, a Russian icon painter, came to his usual prayer service at church, the Parson told him it would be much better if Oleg went home and kept on painting icons. “You’d serve God better by painting icons, while we pray for you in the church”, said the Parson. This is how icon painting is considered by the Russian Orthodox Church – as a prayer robed in colors.
     Oleg Mansurov was born in Ekaterinburg (then Sverdlovsk), Ural, in 1965. He finished the Sverdlovsk College of Arts and then moved to Saint-Petersburg after getting the Metropolitan John’s blessing. In St. Petersburg Oleg entered the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after I.E. Repin of the Academy of Arts of Russia. He studied in the Art Faculty, in the Section specializing in Old Russian Tempera Painting Copying and Restoration. He graduated in 1993.
     Nowadays, Oleg is a member of the Union of Artists and a participant at many exhibitions. His works are owned by private collectors all over the world, including Russia, USA and Germany. Oleg Mansurov creates in different styles. These include paintings of historical themes (in Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s and Semiradskiy’s style and in a Russian historical painting style), portraits (using XVIII and XIX Century techniques and technologies), still life (in the Dutch Artists’ manner). But it is in icon painting that remains the leading direction of Oleg’s creativity.
     Oleg Mansurov paints icons in the style of Old Russian and Byzantine painting or of the academic painting of the XIX Century. In his works he uses only ancient technologies: natural paints made of yolk, natural mineral colors (haematite, lapis lazuli etc.), glue made of air-bladders of sturgeons and gold leaf. To start work on each project, Oleg, as the icon painter, needs to get the blessing of the Church. Sometimes it is even necessary to keep a fast during painting.
     Oleg Mansurov has created icon paintings for many churches in Saint-Petersburg. One of his works can be seen at the Church of John the Precursor’s Nativity (“Chesmenskaya Church”), where he painted the Crucifix – a copy of the Cross of the Lord from the Cathedral on the Calvary in Jerusalem. Especially for this work a stone from the Calvary was delivered to the Chesmenskaya Church to be put under the Crucifix.
     In St. Nicolae the Wonderworker’s Church at Kolomyajsky Prospect, Oleg Mansurov and a group of students under his supervision, made all the internal paintings. There is no other church in Saint-Petersburg painted in the same style – Oleg calls it “adapted Paleolog style”. As the basis for the dome painting Oleg used the Byzantine mosaics. For the full-length icon “Lord the Omnipotent” he used the Paleolog style, and for depicting Our Lady on the full-length icon he used the Serbian style.
     Another work by Oleg Mansurov can be found in the New Maiden Nunnery, where he depicted the Holy Martyr Ilarion Troitsky, on the lid of the shrine of the Church of the Kazan Icon of Our Lady.
     In the Church of Theophany at the Gutuevsky Island, Oleg Mansurov painted icons for the Iconostasis, and also the icons “Crucifixion” and “The Inexhaustible Cup”. Oleg also painted icons for the churches of the Leningrad region. In the Village Rojdestveno he worked at “Our Lady of Kazan”, “Seraphim Sarovsky” and other icons for the Church of the Nativity of Our Most Holy Lady. In the Village Seno (near Boxitigorsk) Oleg painted “Trinity” for the Trinity Church.
     Oleg Mansurov also does commissioned work for clients. He paints ancestral icons for families and portraits and pictures with Holy themes.

     To commission your own Icon or Portrait or other painting by Oleg Mansurov contact Neva News on +7 (812) 272-14-54.
     You can see more of Oleg’s paintings on the Neva News web site, www.nevanews.com then link to the Art Gallery or go direct to www.opengroupart.com