Two-Faced Rose. Graphite Flowers Series (2025) Original Pencil Drawing by Sergei Skachkov

"An image of the human soul torn between purity and temptation, light and shadow."

The painting depicts a close-up of a flower.

This rose seems to float in a space outside of time and context.

Its petals are two-faced: the outer side is white, the inner one black.

The white color on the outer surface of the petals traditionally symbolizes purity, clarity, and openness. Black, in contrast, evokes mystery, the inner essence, the unknown, the hidden. Their union within a single form gives rise to an image of beauty’s dual nature: the fragile perfection of the outer world coexists with the dark depth of the inner one. This color contrast can be seen as a visual counterpart to the concepts of Yang and Yin, where each pole exists only in relation to its opposite.

Stylistically, the work balances between realism and conceptualism. The detailed rendering of the petal texture and the play of light recall the techniques of realism, yet the very idea of the two-colored flower draws the viewer into a space of philosophical reflection, where the two-faced rose becomes a symbol of the inner state. One might say that the artist uses the form of the flower as a plastic metaphor for the human soul, in which light and darkness are inseparable.

The drawing is treated with a special fixative for artistic pencil work.

This artwork is sold unframed.
*Images showing the drawing in a frame and in various room settings are for illustration purposes only.

Materials used:

graphite, pencil

Details:

• Pencil drawing on Paper
• One of a kind artwork
• Size: 60 x 60 x 0.1cm (unframed) / 58.5 x 58.5cm (actual image size)
• Signed on the front
• Style: Photorealistic
• Subject: Flowers and plants