Laurent Schkolnyk was born in 1953 in Paris, France. It was at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Nantes, that he began mastering one of the most difficult artistic mediums called mezzotint. In mezzotint, the entire surface of a copper plate is evenly pitted with an engraving tool called a rocker to create a texture, or “ground,” that will hold ink. In areas that are to remain inkless, the ground is scraped and burnished away. Full color images increase the difficultly because separate plates are required for each primary color. Schkolnyk advantageously uses this labor-intensive medium to fully model soft, rounded forms in luscious hues.
In Schkolnyk”s still-life scenes, he juxtaposes objects such as plump, ripe fruit and dainty, porcelain vessels. Schkolnyk”s work has been exhibited internationally at galleries and museums in Canada, France, Hungary, Japan, Korea, Thailand, and the USA. His work is in many public and private collections including the Achenbach Foundation for the Arts, Bibliotheue National, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Portland Art Museum.