Alexei Jawdokimov
Biography
Alexei Jawdokimov was born in Russia in the town of Smolensk in 1937. He was brought up up on a collective farm and then in various refugee camps in war torn Europe. He came to England with his mother, a professional dancer, in 1949 and took British nationality in 1954. He obtained a place at the Somerset College of Art in Taunton, to train as an illustrator and designer, interrupting this training for a while when he was awarded a RAF Flying Scholarship to go to Canada. After further travelling Jawdokimov set up a Cossak Dance Company and started to get a small number of acting parts, mainly in television. He also tried working in an advertising company but found that he couldn’t stand the routine. His big acting break came in 1965 through a meeting with the film director Ken Russell, who offered him the part of the Russian poet Yessenin in his film about Isadora Duncan. A succession of film and TV parts followed, working alongside several world famous actors, but during this time he continued to work as a freelance artist and illustrator. Film location work offered a wonderful opportunity for on- the- spot sketching and recording of a variety of landscapes and he was eventually able to abandon commercial - art as such and devote more and more time to “real art work”. Over the years he has developed his own distinctive style. Painting “characters” is his first love, flower sellers at their barrows, old fashioned market traders, countryfolk and of course he immortalises scenes from the wartime ghetto’s. He researches all his paintings with a passion for authenticity, studying costume, setting, and even the lettering above shop doorways. Alexei has exhibited regularly in London and has had one man shows in Sydney and Melbourne in Australia, San Fransisco U.S.A, and Lausanne Switzerland. He lives in London with his part Swiss - French, part Armenian wife Christine whom he met at a Cossack dance rehearsal. He and Christine still sing, dance and play the balalaika in a Russian dance company.