WILLIAM MICHAEL YENKEVICH
| A Deep Passion For Poetic Feeling And Beauty
A lifetime of development as an artist, I paint in the Traditional Realist style using the academic approach of the Old Masters of the 15th thru the 19th centuries.
My ideal style is based on sound craftsmanship and techniques of the past combined with my own findings.
As an artist, as did the great masters of the past, the highest triumph an artist can achieve is the artistic genius of perfect reproduction of the subject represented with a deep passion of poetic feeling and beauty, ideal and superior in quality and craftsmanship.
I see only the beauty in art, and, for me, art is beautiful. I have accepted the infinite pains like the old masters in selecting and preparing methods, materials, and concepts in creating a painting. I deal with preconceived, clearly thought-out, well-designed pictorial projects. Every phase of the painting is developed almost according to a schedule and carried out to the highest perfection of form and the greatest clarity and luminosity of color.
I’m an artist endowed with a special nature, with a particular feeling for seeing form and color spontaneously, as a whole, in perfect harmony. The closer my work of art comes to perfection, the harder it is to pick out its merits because of the beauty of the whole being fused. My art is the negation of life’s disorder and imperfection. It promotes order, clarity, pureness, perfection, and passion.
My painting’s beauty is not created to express the real world but to replace it with a better one. The subjects I paint lose their insignificance in real life and become delicate objects full of grace, emotion, idiosyncrasy, and spiritual life.
My work has no rejection of life but rather an amorous recreation of what exists, purified of everything that distorts it in reality and shows that everything that exists is elegant, refined, beautiful, and perfect. The basis to great art is achieved when the elements of art – drawing, composition, modeling, perspective, design, and color – are brought together in unity to support, enhance, and intensify the artist’s emotions.
To fully appreciate this art style, one must profess a deep respect for the discipline of drawing and the craft of traditional picture-making; one must likewise submit to the mystery of illusion as one of painting’s most characteristic and stately powers.
My art reflects my taste, style, and perspective on life. It infuses life with elegance, vitality, and refinement.
It’s so magical, offering an experience that touches the senses with passion. In the end, I’m an artist out of step with my time, with a purpose in a precious life. To see only the beautiful in art, I, therefore, pass on the passion of my art for all to sense my pleasure. My world directs you to a world of physics, fact, and feelings.
My desire as an artist is to record a vision of beauty and perfection in a less than perfect age…
WILLIAM MICHAEL YENKEVICH
William Michael Yenkevich paints in the Traditional Realist Style using the academic approach of the Old Masters of the 15th thru 19th centuries. Residing in Hazleton, PA, he attended the Columbus College of Art & Design in Columbus, Ohio majoring in Illustration in 1973. He is self-taught in the traditional realist style. Since 1975 he’s been doing Independent Study and research on Old Master Painting, Drawing Techniques, and Fine Art Restoration.
He is one of those rare talented individuals who are entirely self-taught. Like a singer born with perfect pitch, he is gifted with an innate understanding of form, color, design, perspective, and proportion. His ability to then translate his perceptions, utilizing the visual language of classical painting, is flawless. Light is his muse, and the Old Masters no doubt his inspiration. With his meticulously crafted form with highlights and shadows, he illuminates each painting with his use of optical grays and subtle glazes. There is a certain intimacy and pastoral ease in Yenkevich’s paintings. For in his world, he promotes order, clarity, pureness, perfection, and passion.
His paintings and drawings have been exhibited in many solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums throughout the United States and abroad, including the 2015-2016 Masterworks From The International Guild Of Realism National Traveling Exhibition, the 2007-2010 The New Realism: Art In The 21st Century International Traveling Exhibition Guild Of Realism, Audubon Artists National Exhibition at the Federal Building in New York City; The Salmagundi Club in New York City; The American Artist’s Professional League in New York City; The American Artist Gallery in Wayne, PA and Santa Fe, New Mexico; The Morgan Gallery of Fine Art in Blakeslee, PA; the Louisa Melrose Gallery in Frenchtown, NJ; the Afa Gallery in Scranton; the Carroll Siple Gallery in Denver, Colorado; College Misericordia in Dallas, PA; the Scanticon/Princeton Convention Center; Bloomsburg University in Bloomsburg, PA; Reading Public Museum in Reading, PA; and the Pennsylvania State University/Hazleton Campus in Hazleton, PA.
His work is in many private, public, and corporate collections, including Pennsylvania State University/Hazleton Campus, Sargent Art Corp. In Hazleton, PA., Markle Gallery of the Hazleton Art League in Hazleton, PA. and College Misericordia in Dallas, PA.
Mr. Yenkevich is the recipient of numerous awards and honors such as the 2015 Helen DeCozen Award (84th AAPL Grand National Exhibition), Allied Artists of America Award (83rd AAPL Grand National Exhibition), Frank C. Wright Jr. Medal of Honor (79th AAPL Grand National Exhibition) and the Silver Medal of Honor (Audubon Artists National Exhibition) as well as a Finalist Winner in American Art Magazine, Artist Magazine, Manhatten Arts International Magazine, and Art Crowd Magazine Art Competitions.
Mr. Yenkevich has also been featured in many National and International publications such as Best of Worldwide Still Life Artists, American Artist Magazine, Artist Magazine, International Artist Magazine, Art Crowd Magazine, The Collector’s Issue; The Still Life – American Artist, Manhatten Arts International Magazine and a book authored by M. Steven Doherty editor-in-chief of American Artist Magazine entitled “Creative Oil Painting.” He is a member of the following professional organizations: The American Artist’s Professional League (Maxima Cum Laude Member) (Fellow Member) NYC; The International Guild Of Realism Allied Artists of America, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
William Michael Yenkevich is represented by WMY Studio, Hazleton, PA. USA
