OUR STORY
It Runs In
the Family
We preserve, celebrate, and create stories through original art.
Family
For decades these paintings lived in one family's care. Now they're ready to find yours.
My grandparents, Felix and Meri, left Russia in 1991 and spent the rest of their lives collecting original work by Soviet-era artists. They traveled back to scout painters across Russia and Ukraine, brought the work to Canada, and built a life around the art they believed in. It was a business, but really it was a love letter to it.
Not all of it sold. More than 600 original pieces remain, assembled over decades. Some arrive with the full story of the artist behind them. Others stay a mystery, quietly waiting to matter to someone again.
I'm opening the collection to the world one painting at a time, so each one can start its next chapter on a wall that will actually be lived with.
The Work
The artists here trained in Soviet programs built on years of formal study: anatomy, composition, color, classical technique. The craftsmanship shows in every piece.
Russian and Ukrainian painters each brought something distinct. Russian artists carried the weight of the imperial realist academies. Ukrainian artists brought something quieter and just as deep, folk-rooted and lyrical, with a voice that held on even under Soviet pressure.
What remains is a collection full of realism, character, and meaning. These aren't decorative pieces. They're paintings with history in them.
Collected Canvas exists to find them the homes they deserve.
The Next Chapter
A painting's story doesn't end with the people who collected it. It continues with the people who live with it.