He is also a respected educator of young generation. Šocik has been managing youth clubs since 1987. He has invited his colleagues artists to cooperate in drawing, painting, and composition courses for young people (6-29yo).

‘Art has its own language. We need to teach a student this language, so that he or she could use it later, could paint. I tell students about basics of arts, about currents in contemporary art. They also have some lessons of folk,’ says Šocik.

He admits, that uncovering the secrets of art for young people brings him great satisfaction. Many of his students tied their lives with art. Many of them also left Lithuania, as in well-developed states art is doing better. Šocik regrets that young people do not see any opportunities for themselves in Lithuania.

Painting in opposition
As a painter Viktor Šocik, member of the Lithuanian Artists’ Association and the group ‘Individualistai’ (Individuals), paints a lot.

His paintings are full of expression, colours, and abstract forms. But Šocik does not think that he is one of the contemporary artists of Lithuania.

‘Today painting is in opposition, especially my paintings. I try to paint realistically, but I always get expressionism,’ jokes the painter. He also notes that other trends are popular now, like all kinds of performances or shows.

Viktor Šocik has been more into contemporary art in the 90s. ‘We considered our realistic academic art as post-soviet and we started getting interested in American painting or, in other words, abstractionism. I was also painting expressive abstractions,’ says Šocik.

Star of the open-air in Germany
Everything has changed when the painter was invited to attend the painting open-air in Germany. ‘I wanted to show them, that I am not from the East, from province, but I am a contemporary painter and I paint abstractions. And then the organizer of the open-air approached me and said that he knew that I was a good painter from Russia and I could paint good landscapes,’ recalls Šocik. Then the painter took his canvas, went out of the city and painted landscapes. ‘And then the journalists arrived and I became the star of the open-air. All my works were sold.’

Šocik started painting portraits 10 years ago. It all began with his three self-portraits which were taken to the exhibition in Moscow.

‘I returned to realistic paintings. I was studying anatomy, painting portraits, acts. I became someone else again,’ states Šocik.

Painter, baker and chemist
Šocik’s road to painting was not easy. ‘They called me ‘painter, baker and chemist’ at school. I was a black sheep then. It was not easy to be different, especially in times of Soviet collectivization. And no one knows in which direction my life would go if the art teacher Bronius Grušas did not come to the school in Dūkštos. ‘He was a very educated person, he taught esthetics and philosophy in the Academy (formerly Institute) of Arts in Vilnius, he was also a referent in the Council of Ministers. Bronius Grušas was a perfect teacher who could always answer my questions. He became kind of my mentor,’ says Šocik.

Rail installer
Šocik was advised to choose something practical as his profession and paint only for his pleasure. Therefore he joined technical school in Vilnius and studied telecommunication. On weekends he was visiting Grušas in Dūkštos to learn arts. ‘There were conflicts in my family because instead of going to church, I was painting. Moreover, Grušas was painting not only landscapes, but also acts, therefore there were lots of rumours in the village. I was not allowed to leave the house, but I always managed,’ recalls the painter. He was fascinated by painting and joined an evening art school. His teacher was painter Vytautas Anikinas too.

Later Šocik had to go to the army. ‘Firstly I was working as a rail installer. During the second year of my service I was working with painters from Saint Petersburg and Pskov,’ says the painter.

He decided to continue his studies in the Institute of Arts (today – Academy), but he managed to get to the painting course only at the fourth time.

Šocik took part in the first exhibition of young painters as a student. Shortly afterwards he had the honour to participate in the national painting exhibition.

He has been loyal to the contemporary Lithuanian school of painting characterized by expressionism and colour, which stood out in Soviet times, compared to the Russian realism.

Open-air exhibition
After his studies, Šocik felt a lot of support of Młynski who was inviting him to Sudervė, where he was the manager of a school. Šocik was painting landscapes, organized exhibitions at schools and in the local house of culture.

He has had many personal exhibitions in Lithuania since then. Šocik also took part in about 30 group exhibitions and open-airs in Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Russia and China. His works are bought by art collectors from all around the world. He was awarded for his works by the Lithuanian Artists' Association, to which he belongs since 1995. The Lithuanian Artists' Association unites 1433 artists including about 10 artist of Polish origin. In 2009, on the occasion of the First Wilniuki Congress, they organized an exhibition of their works at the Lithuanian Theatre, Music and Film Museum in Vilnius at the initiative of Robert Bluj. Šocik, who was also taking part in the exhibitions, mentioned that it was probably the first exhibition of professional Polish painters from Lithuania in independent state. But Šocik claims, that such exhibitions (by Polish painters) are not needed for anyone, as some people even tend to think that this is the opposition to Lithuanians. According to him, painters should focus only on painting.

Šocik spends his evenings and nights on painting. He plans to organize an open-air exhibition of his works on his premises. And now everyone can see his paintings in his studio too.

Ivona Klimaševskaja

’This project is co-financed from the funds granted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland.‘