SHOLTES STEPAN

People's Artist of Ukraine (2017). Member of the National Union of Architects of Ukraine (1969).

He was born on 26 May 1944 in Turytsia village, Perechyn district, Transcarpathia, in the family of a priest and famous painter Zoltan Sholtes, who, in his turn, studied at the coryphaei of the Transcarpathian school of painting Adalbert Erdeli and Yosyp Bokshai. At school, Stepan attended the fine art studio of Zoltan Bakoniia. Student drawings of the future artist were exhibited in Syria and Germany in the 50s.

After school, he entered the Faculty of Architecture of the Kyiv State Art Institute, which he finished in 1967 with honours. Then for three years he was working for the project organization and was the co-author the construction project of Uzhhorod Hotel. Among his works, there were building projects of the centres of Mizhhiria, Mukachevo, Uzhhorod, tourist centres in Kostryna, Zhdeniievo, Huklyvyi villages and others. The author actively worked in the field of monumental art, designed a lot of building in the cities of Transcarpathia. But he was always engaged in painting as well.

In painting, he is a follower of his outstanding mentor and father Zoltan Sholtes. It is not a coincidence that the dominant genre in the artist’s work is landscape, and his favourite techniques – oil, watercolours and pastels. His paintings captivate by mastery of performance, truthfulness, and easiness.

The artist considers plein air painting a perfect form of perception and transmission of natural beauty to the canvas. The artist is in love with the Carpathian Mountains – in nature he feels like in a creative studio. The author recalled that the lowlands of Hungary and regions of France, where he had to work, did not cause such an enthusiasm as native landscapes, but it even inspired boredom. And only at home, in the mountains, he feels tides of creative inspiration.   

In the early 90s, Stepan Sholtes, together with his colleagues Vasyl Brenzovych and Emma Levadska, founded the Association of Professional Artists of Uzhhorod as an alternative to the existing union of artists. This society of like-minded people for many years has organized numerous plein airs, exhibitions, publications.

Since 1972, the author has participated in regional, all-Ukrainian and foreign art exhibitions (Slovakia, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, and the USA).