Each canvas is a guide to the world of nostalgia and fantasy, where old toys, cozy corners of the house, and fragments of memories are intertwined with phantasmagoric images and plots. Surreal landscapes and mystical architecture bring us back to the pages of children’s books, where everything is shrouded in mystery and magic. Painting mixes reality with illusion on the canvas.Sergey Ratchin’s technique is in synthesis with the ideological content of the painting. The texture of the strokes and contrasting color solutions harmoniously complement the figurative base. The process of creating art is a state of balancing on the boundaries of reality and illusion. Subjective worlds collide, which generates portals, errors in the fabric of being. The canvas dedicated to A. S. Pushkin is filled with similar elements. So gray interior items, which are both symbols of a bygone era and objects from the world of the artist’s ideas, expand the boundaries of the painting. Similar games with space are inherent in the work of “Danae’s Dreams”, where the main character is hidden from the viewer. The dense forest around her is irrational: the tree trunks resemble female figures with their curves. The dancing nature echoes the mystery that should happen according to the plot of the painting, but the viewer does not see the canonical attributes of the Greek myth here. There are no signs of the presence of Zeus or the maidservant, which are usually included in the composition. Only privacy and freedom in a fabulous forest. The thin vertical strokes that cover the painting refer to Rembrandt’s famous work “Danae” (1636, Hermitage), which suffered from acid spilled on it. The smudges left after the restoration inspired Sergei Ratchin. This is how the compositions of a modern artist become a place where different historical epochs and spaces intersect.The mysticism of the paintings draws the viewer into the world of Sergei Ratchin’s performances. The landscapes are filled with subtle lyrics of the painter’s residence in the boundless space of nature and architecture. Blurred images of buildings and street spaces as a potential for creating your own illusion. Kupol Gallery opens to the viewer a surreal world with mysterious images, the keys to solving which can be found in the unusual details of the paintings.