READING 10 B1
www.biographies.com
Alexander Belozor
Alexander Belozor was born on January 8, 1963 and lives i n
Kiev, the capital city of Ukraine. He studied graphic arts
in Odessa, Ukraines third largest city, and he is famous
for his unusual art. While most artists work in a studio,
Alexander prefers working at the bottom of the sea and
has become well-known for his amazing paintings which
he creates while under water.
Alexander often paints in the Black Sea, but he has painted
and taken part in many art exhibitions around the world.
Depending on where he is painting, he dives up to 30
metres under the sea to paint his pictures; any more than
30 metres under the sea is too dangerous with the kind of
equipment Alexander uses. Painting under water is a race
against the clock as Alexander only has about 40 minutes
painting time before the oxygen in his diving equipment
runs out.
Time is not the only thing that makes this kind of painting
challenging. The colours of the paints change as you go
deeper under water and can look totally different once you
return to land. Red, for example, turns brown or even
black at 30 metres depth. Another problem is the sea water
mixing with the paints. To solve this problem, Alexander
covers the canvases he paints on with a waterproof coating
before he dives under water so the paint is not washed
away by the water.
Alexander has created more than 75 underwater paintings
and has won many prizes. He holds the Guinness World
Record for the biggest underwater painting which he
created in the Red Sea off the coast of Egypt in 2010. The
painting was of a fish in the ocean and measured 80cm x
100cm.
1 Read the biography quickly. What does Alexander do?
A He is a photographer.
B He is an underwater artist.
C He is a deep sea diving
teacher.
Alexander chooses to paint under water for a variety of reasons.
First of all, he says the effects that light creates under water are
very interesting to paint. Light travels through water in a
different way than when it travels through air and so creates
unusual effects. Secondly, Alexander hopes that his art will show
people the beauty of our seas and oceans, which are landscapes
that most of us have never seen. Finally, Alexander wants to
educate people about the need to protect our seas and oceans.
Through his painting under water, Alexander has seen the
effects of pollution on these natural environments and has made
it his aim to inform people of this issue.
2 Read the biography again. What five pieces of information
are mentioned?
his date of birth
his education
his family life
the places he paints
his past jobs
his colleagues
his achievements
his reasons for painting
3 Are the sentences true or false?
1 Alexander lives and studied in Kiev, Ukraine. TRUE/FALSE
2 It is not safe for Alexander to dive deeper than 30 metres
to paint. TRUE/FALSE
3 Alexander can paint under water for an hour at a time.
TRUE/FALSE
4 Black paint can look like it is red in deep water.
TRUE/FALSE
5 The paint Alexander uses is sometimes washed away by
the sea. TRUE/FALSE
6 Alexander has painted the largest underwater painting in
the world. TRUE/FALSE
7 Alexander says the way light travels through air creates
unusual effects. TRUE/FALSE
8 Alexanders goal is to help protect the environment
through his art. TRUE/FALSE