Shirley: And as we've been looking at your art, you've told me that this painting is one of your favorites. When did you actually paint this Yve's Reflection?
Yuri: Right, it was about in 2001. At the time I was in a gallery. There was a fantastic exhibition by a French painter, surrealist, dead now. Yve Tanguy, and I was really impressed by his art and I basically left the show, I ran back home, and I start to paint this painting. I couldn't stop and it's fantastic.
Shirley: So, what did you actually paint this on then?
Yuri: Well, I actually find on the street a cupboard and I took the door out. I prepare it and I painted on this.
Shirley: So this is like painting on the door of a bedroom cupboard
Yuri: Yep.
Shirley: Wow! I love the frame.
Yuri: Yeah, it's a natural frame, so.
Shirley: And can you tell me a bit about the painting then? Who is Yve Tanguy? How did he inspire you to paint this kind of image?
Yuri: So, if Tanguy is a French surrealist. It was fantastic. It was called one of the fathers of surrealists, and I went to visit one of his galleries and there were so many paintings. There was one better than the other, and that day I ran back home to my studio and I painted this.
Shirley: OK, looking through your paintings. They're all so colorful, can you tell me where you get the inspiration?
Yuri: I don't know. I think that I like the colors. So from nature, if you really look, also if you look in the little garden there are hundreds of different colors so beautiful and striking, and I think I try to put this one, this beautiful, this magic in my own work.
Shirley: Do you ever do any kind of dark paintings? I mean dark colors and moody kind of feeling?
Yuri: Sometimes. When I do some abstract, maybe I just put my feeling. I just grab a tin of paint and I put it on and just check what has come out.
Shirley: Because just looking at your paintings and the kind of character, you seem a very lively person and I think that comes out in all these colors.
Yuri: I hope it is.