On the threshold of the 21th anniversary of Armenia's independence according to RA president’s decree Slavik Paronyan, the honorary professor of department of painting and sculpture of the Yerevan State University of Architecture and Construction, was awarded  with the title of RA National Artist.

Words are the best way to express human thoughts and feelings. But even masters of speech art   are often confronted with a situation when the words seem ineffective to express the thoughts, when even the most felicitous phrases seem weak to express the meaning. In such cases, I think that the artists, musicians or the other representatives of   art are privileged people, who are able to express their thoughts by more powerful means than words. Therefore, I should edit the above mentioned: words are the most common means to express human thoughts and feelings.

It is known that all people have the ability to paint in the childhood, but few of them are able to develop that talent, keeping in their heart the flight of imagination, the ability to look at the world in their own unique way and the courage to stand in front of a white canvas with palette colors in hand. But to win the fight against the white canvas, the artist should remain a child deep in his soul staying in the age when all people have the ability to paint.

I know many artists: some of them personally, the others by the memories and testimony of witnesses. All of them, despite the difference in their natures, have all these characteristic features. One of them is my friend Slavik Paronyan, 82-year-old talented child whose art delights and makes you admire. Undoubtedly, he will remain in the history of the Armenian painting art as an artist of good inner world, honest, sincere feelings, nature and harmony.   

When looking at the canvas of Slavik Paronyan I always face the problem to abandon the familiar and subjective world of personal sympathy and appraise his art objectively. The painter himself helps me to overcome that barrier with the frank, subtle, sensuous world of his works.

The canvas of S. Paronyan do not contain any pathetic colors and lines; his aesthetics is serene that can never be confused with primitiveness, his pantheism is pure as water of flowing river, his feelings are obvious, his mood tends to unquestionable clearness of the world. In his canvas all human creations, houses or churches, are merged with the landscape, fair as a child soul. In his paintings humans live harmoniously with nature, with naive wisdom and shining as a blossomed tree. I love the impressive world of his paintings: “Apricot Tree”, “Spring”, “Autumn in the Mountains”, “Ayrivank”. They lead the viewers to consciousness and purification.       

With his art Slavik Paronyan continues the investment of his great teachers: Saryan, Zardaryan and others, at the same time creating his own world and becoming a teacher for the young people entering the world of colors and drawing.

From the big window of his studio in Saghmosavan Slavik Paronyan sees all the corners of the world and his small colorful, distinguishedArmeniain the center of that world. Wherever he goes, he remembers the words of great Saryan that he had told him in his young years: “Speak Armenian in your canvas”.

I made ​​a small attempt to express in words the merits of a very dear person to me but sometimes the words are not enough. I would like to express my thoughts and feelings with the help of colors and paintings, but it is the work of the talented people.                

Razmik Markosyan