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E. Denis was born in 1971 in Byelorussia. He was the youngest child
in the family and all his free time he spent painting. There were
several reasons for this passion. Denis came from an artistic family:
his parents were architects, his elder brother loved painting too
and his grandfather was very famous in artistic circles in Byelorussia.
The grandfather devoted all his life to photography and during the
World War II he worked as a special war photo correspondent. His
grandson respected him a lot and the former loved spending time
at his house. The grandfather taught Denis to look at ordinary things
from a different angle. He made the boy to pay attention to unusually
floating fog or very beautiful sunset.
Denis's talents as an artist were developed from early childhood.
His first exhibition took place at the prestigious Moscow All-Russian
Exhibition Center when he was just 8 years old. At this exhibition
he received his first special award from the Ministry of Education
of Byelorussia.
While a teenager Denis studied in 2 schools simultaneously: in
an art school and art studio for youths in Minsk. His parents saw
that he was very passionate about art and wanted him to continue
his education in the Art Academy but Denis decided that he already
knew a lot an he didn't want to continue education in a government
institution any more. In addition it was 1991, the year of the collapse
of the Soviet Union, the country was going through a lot of changes
and there were many uncertainties.
As a result Denis decided to become an entrepreneur. He already
had a wife to support and was expecting his first child. He opened
a company that was selling road trucks. He appeared to be very successful
but the life of a businessman didn't give his soul any satisfaction.
His heart was looking for something "clean" and sincere,
something connected to art, not money. Denis found his salvation
in the church and soon after that he sold his business and started
painting full time. Now that he didn't need money he devoted his
time studying art and he took a lot of private lessons from the
famous artists working at the Academy of Art.
With the blessing of Mitropolit (the highest rank of priest in
Russian orthodox Church) Filaret Denis started to work on icon reliefs
for church bells. Sculpture was also easy for Denis to create though
the process was tedious and demanded detailed attention because
once a slice of wax was cut off it could not be restored.
Denis's first website was created in 2001 which exhibited his earlier
paintings and church bells. After that he took part in many exhibitions
in his home country and abroad: USA, Europe and Israel. The most
important exhibition was International Art Expo NY 2004, 2005, 2006,
2007. Now his paintings are exhibited in USA, Israel, Canada, the
Netherlands and Czech republic. His church bells can be found in
more than 100 churches in Russia, Byelorussia, Ukraine, Baltic States
and USA.
His love of art helped Denis to find harmony within himself and
taught him to live in harmony with the world around him.
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