28.03.14 12:00 AM

Anatoly Piatkevich [Анатолий Петкевич] was born in 1969 in a small town in the heart of Belarus, once a Republic of the former Soviet Union. The countryside has a mixture of serene forests, rivers, meadows and ruins of old castles and other remnants of his predecessors. Anatoly recalls fondly that his childhood home was filled with paintings of Belarus landscapes as painted by his mother and grandmother.

Perhaps as a result, Anatoly also remembers always having a passion for music, literature and art. As a child he was enrolled in music school and played the trombone every day.At age 18 he began a 3-year obligation with the army and was sent to Siberia

. A battalion commander once asked, "Who can paint posters?" Anatoly volunteered and thus initiated his career as an artist. His paintings of tanks and soldiers, nearby landscapes, and portraits of the officers hung in the general quarters of the battalion as well as every officer's home. After three years of hard work as an army artist, Anatoly ventured to Minsk (the capital of Belarus) with the goal of attending an art college.

He tells the story of the entrance exam where he was the only prospective student to show up with no art supplies. He and his girlfriend rushed to the nearest art supply store where he was able to purchase only three colors of paint, hardly adequate to paint the still life that had been the exam assignment. With only one of the three hours remaining in the exam, Anatoly cleverly improvised by painting the entire group of prospective students working nervously at their easels, the professor walking among them, and even relatives and friends peering through slightly opened doors.

Upon hearing that he had been accepted into the art college, Anatoly proposed marriage to his girlfriend and they are still married today with two beautiful daughters. Anatoly graduated from the prestigious Belarus Fine Art Academy in 1997. Rather than continuing his studies at the Academy, Anatoly then decided to continue his studies on his own, primarily working as an open air artist, traveling extensively throughout Belarus, which remains his favorite place to paint. Anatoly has received numerous awards from juried shows and participates in prestigious one-man and group exhibitions throughout Russia and Europe.