Watching the films of Russian Oscar-winning animation director Aleksandr Petrov, you don’t think about the techniques he uses. But after leaving the cinema you can’t help asking yourself how he manages to create such fresh and beautiful images. An exhibit

It's more than just animation, it's breathing life into a picture. Aleksandr Petrov's technique is called revived painting.

Petrov paints twelve pictures to create just one second of film. Each shot is a real piece of art with its own history of creation. Looking for images to bring his characters to life, Petrov makes lots of pencil and coloured drawings of different models – just as an artist makes sketches before creating a masterpiece.

He then starts painting the film, frame-by-frame, using darkened glass, oil paints and his fingers.

Petrov's unique style was acknowledged by the American Academy Awards in 2000, when he was awarded an Oscar for his animated film “The Old Man and the Sea” in the best short film category.

“The Creation of a Film” display reveals the creative process of Petrov's latest work, which is called “My Love”. It’s based on the 1920's novel “The Story of Love” by the Russian writer Ivan Shmelyov. The film consists of almost 20,000 paintings and it took Petrov three-and-a-half years to create it.