| Romanas Borisovas’ works belong to the classical realist visual arts. The watercolour illustrations of his selected architectural monuments with all their details are executed to accurate precision. They lack the incompleteness or liberal interpretation so liked by many artists. If a tower is shown, it will be straight, if it’s a brick archway, then it will appear as it does in real life, if it’s a window gap, then it won’t be crooked. He does not go against the canons of forming a structure’s perspective, even when an uncharacteristic angle or point of view is chosen. The works are of an excellent composition that allow the viewer to focus their attention on the main accent in a work, empowering it with the complete emotional impact intended by the author. The colour spectrum of his watercolours is quite sedate – related shades and tones. Borisovas does not use open colours that scream for attention, and thus does not produce a disonance in colour in his works. The brick ruins are conveyed with ultimate precision. Almost every brick has its own shades and a clear contour demarcating the grout. Light effects receive a great deal of attention in the artist’s works – there is an ordered placement of detail shadows. The intensity of shadows and coloured undertones make the watercolour “come alive”. The undertones are usually more intense in the foreground, becoming less so in the second and subsequent planes. All of this can be achieved due to the artist’s chosen execution technique – to work on semi-dry paper. Landscape artists prefer to create watercolours “with a light hand”, straight onto damp paper, making the play of colour the main accent, rather than the illustration. Borisovas does not find this appropriate, as this method eliminates the clarity of the contours. Incidentally, this method is used in small patches in some of his works, mostly to portray the sky, clouds, water or another entourage. |
