Alexei Bolshakov was born in the Russian city of Petrograd in 1922.  Before the Great Patriotic War of 1941 he studied at the Leningrad Intermediate Art School from 1935- 41.  After surviving the war years he returned to school at the Repin Institute in Leningrad (St. Petersburg). After graduation the quality of his art was judged so highly he was appointed as an instructor, an extraordinary honor reserved only for those whose work was of the highest caliber.  During the course of Bolshakov’s career as a painting instructor at the Repin he was responsible for nurturing the most talented painters of several generations of Soviet Artists.  Among his close friends and colleagues are the celebrated painters Nikolai Timkov (1912-1993) and Vladimir Krantz (b.1912).  An inspiration and father figure to many aritsts, Bolshakov creates flat, broad color with both knife and brush, and great depth with his skillful color choice.  As with Timkov and Krantz he is an adherent of the naturalist school of painting, infusing emotion and a personal view of the world into his subtle work.  Today he spends his time in semi-retirement from teaching, choosing to mentor a few chosen students while focusing on his own work.  Never a commercial painter, Bolshakov’s art is private, emotional, and genuine. A living link to the great Russian painters of the Soviet Era he is a product of and now an instrumental force behind the rigorous classical training that defines and sets apart the quality of Russian art when compared to the contemporary school of Western Europe.