Pyotr Artemyevich Oborin (1917–2005) was a Soviet Russian painter and graphic artist known for landscapes, portraits and genre and historical compositions depicting the people, industry and landscapes of the Perm region. A member of the Union of Artists of the USSR from 1942, he was one of the founding figures of the Perm branch of the artists’ union.

Oborin was born on September 15, 1917, in Lysva, Perm Governorate. He studied in an amateur art circle at the House of Culture in Lysva before graduating from the Perm Art College in 1937. He worked as an artist and drawing instructor at the I. V. Stalin Club in 1937 and at the Perm Regional Museum of Local Lore from 1938 to 1941. During the Second World War, he worked on propaganda materials at the Perm branch of the Artists' Union, producing posters, leaflets, satirical sheets and portraits for distribution throughout the region.

After the war, Oborin joined the Perm partnership of the Artists' Union in 1946. He worked primarily in easel painting, using oil, watercolour and pastel. He travelled extensively across the Urals and central Russia, producing landscapes and studies of industrial and rural life. His subjects included Perm and the Kama River, the Chusovoy Metallurgical Plant, the Kizel coal basin and the landscapes of the Perm region. He also participated in archaeological expeditions in the region with archaeologist Otto Bader in 1947, 1955 and 1956.

One of his best-known paintings, First Success (1954), depicted a young participant in an amateur performance competition and was based on his observations during journeys through the Perm region. The work was exhibited at Republican and All-Union exhibitions in Moscow, received a first-degree diploma from the Ministry of Culture of the RSFSR and was reproduced in Ogonyok magazine and as a postcard. Oborin also painted portraits of cultural and scientific figures including writer Vasily Kamensky, architect Nikolai Shvarev and Professor Pavel Chistyakov. From the 1960s he participated regularly in exhibitions of Perm artists, including the 1964 Soviet Russia exhibition in Moscow.

Oborin held solo exhibitions in Perm, Krasnokamsk and Lysva between 1987 and 2006. His work included numerous landscapes, self-portraits and studies of the people and places of the Urals. He died in Perm on March 15, 2005, aged 87.

Pyotr Artemevich Oborin