Nikolai Dubovik

Nikolai Dubovik was born June 16, 1960 in the village of Urzuf, on the Don River in southern Russia. He spent his early childhood residing in a cottage in Tavria on the steeps of Preyazovsky. Nikolai's father was a simple cobbler who played the fiddle on festive days. His father fought and lived through two great wars, the Finnish as well as World War II. As a young boy, Nikolai was in love with drawing. He drew on everything he could find; pieces of scrap paper, on the floor, and newspaper. Ten years after the death of his mother he entered the orphanage of Taganroge. The orphanage was in an old building, formerly the governor's house. Here the Russian Tsar Alexander I died 1825. This place turned out to leave strong impressions on the young artist. When he was 14 years old he entered a special school for the arts. During this time of his life he experienced major problems with finances and he armed him self with a French easel made by pieces of panel from a broken bed he found in the attic of the orphanage. When he was 15, he was accepted to the Art College in Honour of Grekov, in the city of Rostov on the Don. Directly after completing his studies here, he began to teach in the Taganroge art school. In 1979 he was drafted into the Soviet Army. From 1982-1988 he was a student of the Surikov Institute under the direction of the Honored Artist of the USSR, T. Salakhov. For his excellent artistic achievement he was offered to do post-graduate work at the Surikov Institute by two departments (this was a very rare honor), Drawing, and Painting, in order to prepare him to be an instructor at the Institute. He finished his post-graduate degree under the direction of the legendary artist Vyacheslav Nikolaivic Zabelin. After finishing his studies he began teaching drawing in the studio of Professor Zabelin. He received tenure in 1997 and teaches there still today. He is also a member of the Mosocw River School of painters, founded by the famous Russian artist Yuri Kugach. Nikolai's drawings and paintings are featured in numerous books on Russian artists.