Buon Fresco founded by New York artist Victoria Jean Christine Bingham  - is the artistic collaboration of Bingham and Andre Nikolaevich Kouznetsov   - representing a sum total of over 50 years of art in many forms.

Bingham - a gifted artist from her youth -studied Illustration and Painting on  full scholarship at Syracuse University in New York  As additional testament to her creativity, Bingham is an inventor, holding so far, two US patents with more pending.

Kouznetsov studied painting at the prestigious academy of Fine Art in St. Petersburg, in his native Russia. 

Together the artists, Bingham and Kouznetsov have amassed a collection of work which has led their joint studio - Buon Fresco - to win prestigious awards and gain renown for diversity and innovation in murals and decorative arts.  And they have more to come!

Andre Nikolaevich Kouznetsov 

[Scroll down for Bios]

Among Buon Fresco, LLC's creative accomplishments in the diverse portfolio are works ranging from the 15- foot Portrait of Placido Domingo for Georgetown's Cafe Milano; an award winning Trompe L’ Oeil Baroque Cupola painting on the Great Hallway ceiling of a palatial Potomac,MD residence;an Art-Deco Jazz Mural for Washington's Black Entertainment Television restaurant; a 10 color Venetian Plaster Hydrangea mural created for the 2000 National Symphony Orchestra Decorator Show House about which Traditional Home Magazine Writers remarked, 'We've never seen walls like this!” To which we reply: “There have never been walls like this”.

Under the direction of Victoria Bingham - Buon Fresco - has been the recipient of both national and local awards; has appeared twice on Home & Garden Television; once in a Dreamworks film; and in The Washington Post Newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Home & Design, Architectural Digest, Chesapeake Home Magazine, Better Homes & Gardens Magazine; Faux Magazine and more.

 Victoria J. Bingham      Artist Biography

The founder, designer and instructor of Buon Fresco® & The Academy of Wall Artistry is Victoria Jean Christine Bingham.  

Born in New York City on Halloween, Bingham was recognizable as an artist at the age of 6 with her precocious drawings of reflected light and perspective.  By 13 Bingham was drawing commissioned portraits.  She received her first award for art at 14 and the age of 16 she had already had her first painting stolen.  Named a ‘renaissance woman’ by friends, Bingham’s abundant skills and numerous interests have both abetted and interrupted her busy art career. 

In 1975/6 Bingham attended Syracuse University's College of Art on full scholarship, studying painting and illustration under the tutelage of such artists as Jerome Witkin and Tom Allen.   Serious illness provoked her premature departure from school  but was followed by a dramatic recovery 2 years later [What is actually an amazing story will soon be coming to Victoria's Blog] and the subsequent decision to join the Army.  The military chapter of Bingham’s  life began at Fort Jackson, SC in the cold November of 1978 during 2 months of grueling Army Basic Training [in the days before stress cards] and found the self taught caricaturist knocking out satirical drawings of the drill sergeants [not in lieu of pushups however].  Still, PVT Bingham was quick to discover that the pen WAS mightier than the sword and people of all rank and file LOVE to see themselves in caricature.  Her drawings of the 2^nd Battalion, Delta Company leadership hung in headquarters for years after her graduation.  [See selection above!  Victoria would like to extend a big HELLO To Lt. SALADINO [who put her up to it!] if he can ever be found].   Bingham is proud to have graduated Ft. Jackson Army Basic as '1st' Female in Physical Fitness, and later Combat Medical School at Fort Sam Houston TX as the honor graduate of 365 medical students.

Back in New York - when she wasn't drilling as a reservist with an Army Hospital in Brooklyn, Bingham supplemented art by driving a NYC taxi cab.  In the record breaking snow storm of APRIL 1982 Bingham saved the life of a 75 year old man while driving in her cab, [thanks to previous training in the blizzard driving boot-camp, otherwise known as 'Syracuse', New York] Years later she told the story while appearing in Joe Berlinger’s [Film Director of Paradise Lost & My Brother's Keeper] classic documentary film ‘Outrageous Taxi Stories’.  

By 1986, never far from the drafting table –Bingham became a full time caricaturist on the tri-state party circuit and drew 'some million & a half' folks faces through 1991 when she 're-upped' into the military and left for Monterey, California to learn Russian at DLI [The Defense Language Institute]. 

SGT Bingham’s graduated from the Russian Course at DLI - tied for first place in the class- 'drawing' a supply of job offers from DOD departments of which Bingham selected the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Office [DPMO] and went to Washington DC for an assignment that lasted 3 years.  One of her most 'memorable' occasions was during a DPMO plenury in Moscow, Russia, in April of 1995, when she was asked to sing in Russian, for the company of Russian and American dignitaries during a dinner engagement.  Bingham recollects that, in response to her song, she saw, for the very first time, one particular KGB agent - smile.

Bingham's proudest accomplishment in Washington was a successful petition to have a Korean War POW Veteran awarded for heroism while a prisoner in Korea - 43 years after the fact.  Bingham's efforts garnered the Army Silver Star for PVT Wayne 'Johnny Johnson', whose remarkable listing of American soldier deaths -  kept surreptitiously while in prison at risk to his life, went on to flesh out a Defense Department data base of POW/MIAs.  [Johnson's heroic story is told in the January 1997 Readers Digest first 'Article of Lasting Interest' series entitled 'The List'] 

2.5 years later, when the DOD assignment finally ended, Bingham, ever the artist,  picked up her palette and with the help of Andre Kouznetsov began a career of decorative painting.

In 1997 Buon Fresco, the artistic collaboration of Bingham and Kouznetsov was born. This time Faux Finishing finally became a full-time career and the resulting portfolio of work speaks for itself. Buon Fresco's work has been displayed in National magazines, The Washington Post, HGTV twice and a Dreamwork’s film [Head of State with Chris Rock].  Bingham’s Venetian Plaster designs have provoked the likes of Traditional Home magazine to remark; ‘We’ve never seen walls like these’;  Sims Bray, the publisher of Veranda Magazine, to say 'Utterly Impressive' and  Interior Designer Justine Sancho to call it ‘The ‘best Venetian Plaster - period!’    

Among a total of 6 awards so far, the studio has been awarded the 'Best Walls in the House' [Elizabeth Warnock Prize] for 2 out of 3 National Symphony Orchestra Show Houses and most recently the 2006 Sepp Leaf, NY  - 'Pride of Place' Prize for the 'Most Distinguished Venetian Plaster'.   One designer who recently engaged Bingham's skills for a collaborative effort, told her it was because she was working on a project that required 'nothing but the best'!

An inventor also with two issued patents to her current credit and several more pending, Bingham’s art philosophy is that ‘Fine Art, like invention, begins with training, then  following it up with the inspirations that only ever come as a result of 'hard work and diligent application.’                      A personal philosophy which reflects Churchill's 'Never Never Never give up'.

When asked why she teaches her 'competition' Bingham will say that first of all, she loves to teach and she also loves to 'help people' who are willing to help themselves.  In the past she has also taught the Bible to adults; had a school in New York City called, 'The Greater Waiter Training Center' and taught Drawing and Art History at a High School Art Club in Virginia.  Bingham will be the first one to admit that the best way to advance any skill is to teach it.  And she also likes to point out,  that ' No one is remembered for what they received, people are remembered for what they gave.'

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Andre Nikolaevich Kouznetsov – BIO

Kouznetsov, born in Vishney Volochok Russia, May 18, 1959  – to Nikolai Kouznetsov and Angelina Serov, was an artist from his youth.  In the Soviet Union talented youngsters were selected for specialized schooling, which for Kouznetsov extended from prep school to University.  Having completed a college program in theater arts, Kouznetsov successfully auditioned for the world renowned St. Petersburg Academy of Art where he studied every high art form for a period of 2 years. 

After his schooling, Kouznetsov’s career in art kicked off during mandatory service in the Soviet Army.  Artistic talent was as ‘fortune’ following the conscript, for instead of serving in a frozen Siberian, he was stationed in the city of art, St. Petersburg , where Kouznetsov’s Army assignment was painting military illustrations and murals.   

Following military service, Kouznetsov migrated to the Soviet republic of Latvia where he married and started a family.  As other Russian youth,, Kouznetsov spent some of his time listening to American music, watching American movies and musing about America.  It was the breakup of the Soviet Union though that finally precipitated his journey to the United States.   When the wall came down in Germany, the Baltic States joined the rush of republics declaring their freedom from the USSR.  In Latvia, the antagonism of the Latvian people toward their former occupants was especially fierce.  Russians were dismissed from jobs, Russian newspapers were closed and people of Russian descent from that point on - compelled to leave.  Unemployed from 2001 Kouznetsov made a living by traveling back & forth to Poland where he sold paintings on the streets.  From 1991 to 1993 Andre and his family lived in poverty. Their flat was often unheated in winter, their diet became reduced to flour and water pancakes.  The strain of these difficult years eventually ended his marriage and Kouznetsov was on his own again.

 In 1993 fortune stepped into his life in the form of an elderly Polish woman who had purchased several of his paintings.  She suggested to Andre that he could do better for his family selling his paintings in the United States and arranged for his travel.  In July of 1993, Andre arrived at New York’s Kennedy Airport.  The Polish woman’s inclination proved prophetic.  By his second day in New York Andre was living in Brooklyn and working full time in a company of Polish painters. He was not yet painting murals, but he was working and learning, and his paintings were already gaining him some rapt attention.

 Like so many immigrants Andre always thought he would return home.  But where was that?  Latvia wouldn’t have him, Russia was no longer the Soviet Union of his youth and at least in America he was earning enough money to support his family.  Andre stayed.  In April of 1995 Andre got married to America and an American and in August of 2000 became an American citizen.   Andre knows that he is blessed to be an American and that his struggles have paid off. His children in Latvia are well fed.  [The oldest has begun University in Riga and his middle son is a gifted musician].   Andre’s paintings and murals hang in private and public places extending from G’dansk to New York, Virginia, Maryland, Washington DC and Pennsylvania.  Kouznetsov’s painting shows in the last few years have been complete sell outs.  And finally Nikolai, Andre youngest son, born in 1999 in Arlington VA., is a budding artist who at 8 years of age did his first 'professional' portrait to raise money for his school. [See Nick below with his drawing and model!]  He also loves to sing.  His favorite song??..  !God Bless America!

 Some of Kouznetsov’s public murals may be seen in  Washington DC at Café Milano,  Le Lavandou and BET Restaurant and outdoors at 712 Capitol St. NE.   A gallery of his paintings and murals may be seen on-line at www.bfresco.com on the gallery or Trompe L’ Oeil and mural pages.

The youngest artist, almost on staff.  Nikolai Andreevich Kouznetsov [on the right] with a portrait and recipient.