Anna Davydchenko. Brush Calling for the Road Automatic translate

The artist Anna Davydchenko was born in Volgograd, but for more than twenty years she has been living and working in the Crimea. Landscape painter, member of the Union of Artists of Ukraine and Russia. Her works are kept in private collections in Germany, France, Greece, Canada, the USA, Israel, and the CIS countries. In the literary and memorial museum of A. Green, in the Vinnitsa Art Museum, in the Feodosia Art Gallery named after I.K. Aivazovsky.

Plein Air, Gurzuf, Crimea

- Anna, do you remember the moment when the first acquaintance with painting happened?

The very first meeting took place in early childhood. I had a poor appetite and, in order to somehow make me eat, albums with reproductions of paintings were laid out in front of me. I was fascinated by the images and, while I opened my mouth, examined them, I managed to feed))). As far as I remember, I painted with felt-tip pens all the time. The favorite characters of my drawings are horses and people.

In the summer, my mother and I often visited our cousins ​​in Crimea with our cousins, Honored Artist of the USSR Nikolai Bortnikov and his wife, Honored Artist of the USSR, Tatyana Kuznetsova. They, seeing my passion and ability to draw, gave me a wide brush, paint cans and a large paper format. The pleasure of drawing on such a large sheet knew no bounds! Seeing the result, they advised my mother to pay attention to my art education.

Montenegro Exhibition after the open air

- Who did your parents see you?

The inclination of my character and the love of drawing led my mother to the idea that creativity should be the basis of my life’s journey.

- Does it work out?

Yes, it is quite! Mom gave me first to the art studio, then to the art school. Subsequently, I received a secondary special and higher art education. My mother helped me a lot and supported me, taking care of my little son and giving me the opportunity to study fully. In the Bortnikov family, I met artists such as V. Bernadsky, V. Apanovich and others.

I well remember the funny case when I, as a teenager (12-13 years old), in the absence of Tatyana Nikolaevna decided to cook dinner for Nikolai Fedorovich and Valentin Danilovich Bernadsky. I fried the chicken very nicely, prepared a side dish and served them on the table. They were delighted, thrust their teeth into the chicken with pleasure, and then with difficulty removed it from their teeth and put it back on the plate. Without telling me anything, they simply took the plates of chicken to the kitchen. And then I saw my culinary “failure”. Blood flowed from the chicken - it was appetizingly fried, but inside it remained moist. And the artists were too considerate to comment on me. This tact was remembered by me and was very useful in life. This is manifested in the fact that whenever a novice artist asks me to evaluate their work, I carefully select the words, because any thoughtlessly spoken word, by those who are considered authority for them, can permanently, if not forever discourage the desire to paint.

Alushta. Plein air in the mountains

Studying at the art school. N. S. Samokish in Simferopol, I often went home and even lived with my cousins ​​grandparents, who themselves taught at this school in the 50s. Their pedagogical advice was extremely useful for me, an aspiring artist. The works of Bortnikov, Kuznetsova and their friends, famous artists of the Crimea of ​​that time, V. Bernadsky, V. Apanovich and others made my heart tremble, and their paintings inspired.

- What places do you remember? Did you immediately start creative activity?

It has been a very long way. After graduating from art school I got a job as a restorer in the gallery to them. I.K. Aivazovsky in the city of Feodosia. At that time, the fund manager I. M. Pogrebetskaya taught me to look at the world of paintings with different eyes, and the constant contact with the works of the famous marine painter and his followers had an extremely beneficial effect on my artistic perception of the world. However, the need to earn a living affected creative search, and therefore they were limited mainly to painting portraits and selling small paintings in the holiday season on the embankment of Feodosia. In addition, the upbringing of the child and teaching at the children’s art school took time and energy.

Work on the embankment of Yalta

In 2001, she remarried and we moved to live in Kiev. There was more time for creativity and in 2005 I brought my works to the exhibition for the first time. And not just anywhere, at the city, district or regional, but immediately at the All-Ukrainian exhibition in the National Union of Artists of Ukraine. Of course, my work did not receive a single vote of the members of the exhibition and the selection did not pass. This greatly surprised me, because my seascapes sold pretty well. Why didn’t anyone vote for them?

After completing the selection of paintings, I managed to beg one of the members of the exhibition to approach my work and explain the reasons for the refusal. He thought for a long time and finally said - “your paintings are too beautiful for our exhibition”)))). This time I thought for a long time. If the paintings are beautiful, then why are they not taken to the exhibition? The answer did not come right away, but through a series of exhibitions, open-airs and painful creative searches for “his face”. I began to travel a lot and work from nature.

- What places do you remember?

I was in the open air in Ukraine, Montenegro, in Russia - and of course - most of all in my beloved Crimea. Each place was deposited in memory in its own way. The organizers of the open-airs try to show the most picturesque places in their region.

Plein air in the mountains of Koktebel, Crimea

Plein airs in Ukraine were remembered by the domes of the Lavra and Sofia, the magical landscapes of the Carpathians. Impressed by the September landscapes of Slavsk, Lviv region. These are mountains, overgrown with forests, “meadows”. Painted and bleached huts. Even the smallest house looks neat and well-groomed. People are curious and hospitable. You stand behind the sketchbook, you write, and the owners of a nearby house can go out and talk. Be sure to try to treat something. Surprised by children who, instead of the usual “Hello”, greeted the words “Glory to Isa Christ”))).

Montenegro charmed with a riot of color, white houses with orange tiled roofs, cleanliness and silence. There was a feeling that I got into a fairy-tale world lost in time. You find yourself in a country of architectural medieval times, but with a modern "filling". The nature of this country is very reminiscent of Yalta, but more saturated with bright colors. A huge number of different colors, they are looked after, watered, everything is fragrant.

Montenegro Plein air

Russia impressed with the classic architectural beauties and canals of St. Petersburg, the mesmerizing beauty of the Golden Ring monasteries and churches, wooden houses with carved shutters, wide fields and dense forests full of mushrooms, calm and good-natured people who, in their thoughts, pass you by.

- In some of your paintings, landscapes of the East, have you been there?

Yes, I was lucky to live in Burma for six months. Thanks to my husband, who worked there, I ended up in an oriental tale. The most exotic experience! The 21st century coexists there next to the eighteenth. A villa with all the benefits of civilization can be adjacent to bamboo huts. A team of oxen rolls along the street next to a new car. Such a contrast in everything! Even men there wear long skirts!

Burma, plein air in the ancient city of Bagan

A country of thousands of Buddhist pagodas and temples, lots of exotic fruits and dishes, a Buddhist religion that educates people to calmly accept the difficulties of life. All this is mixed into a magic cocktail that does not bother. At that time, there were extremely few Europeans in Burma. For locals to see a white woman, and even a blonde, was a big event. As if we drove an elephant down the street))). When I painted on the street, the Burmese, with gestures or in English, asked permission and sat down to observe at a distance. Some remained until the end of work. In general, the attitude of people was positive.

- Well, of course, are you ready to talk about Crimea for hours?

Oh yeah! Crimea is just a mecca for the artist. It inspires summer and winter, autumn and spring. Nature everywhere is so diverse and bewitching. Steppe, mountains, waterfalls, sea, rivers, forests - everyone is free to choose their favorite landscape. Although I live in Feodosia, in the southeast of the peninsula, most of all I like to write the southern coast of Crimea - Big Yalta, Gurzuf, Simeiz and others. The city landscape is best written there. Many picturesque streets, beautiful balconies, roofs.

If there is inspiration to write a combination of mountains and the sea, then I prefer to go to Sudak, Koktebel, Ordzhonikidze - where fancy mountains are gathered in one place and you don’t have to go anywhere, just turn around, watch the sun. And of course, one cannot fail to note the ancient Theodosius - a fortress, the sea, houses - an eternal source of inspiration!

Gurzuf, Chekhov’s cottage

Landscapes are important, but even more important is who you work with in the open air. Collaboration, communication, exchange of experience is an extremely important part of creative growth. I was very lucky to work with such a talented Moscow master as Bato Dugarzhapov. He for me is an example of a bright personality in painting!

- What do you think at work?

- About how to put a smear on the canvas, how the light falls, what is closer, and what is next, how to convey the perspective. The thought process is very stressful. And, even if someone distracts me with conversations, I can answer questions mechanically, mechanically. The thought continues to work, I plunge completely into the picture.

Exhibition at the Central House of Artists, Moscow. Left to right: artists Bato Dugarzhapov, Anna Davydchenko, Irina Kostyuchenko-Kalkutina

- Do you have a favorite and not so much work?

I have no favorite work. Each is how to live life and exhale at the end: “That’s it! It has happened! ”, But only in order to start again a new“ life ”on the next canvas. And you study all the time. Sometimes, looking at the work of last year, you think: “How many flaws! Is that what I wrote!? ”And at that time they seemed to be perfect!)))

- How do you see the world around you?

Artists look at the world in a special way, they see what other people do not notice and vice versa. Images are constantly born in the head. I see compositions, point or angle of view, color, light or back light. Say, when I walk down the street, I don’t pay attention to which company a woman has a bag (hat, dresses, shoes), I see what color spot she looks against the background of the surrounding landscape. For example, while chatting and looking at you, I see part of the picture, how the line of the arm bends, how the light falls on your face, in other words, I see a ready-made portrait, an image, that is, how I would portray you in the picture and not a pretty journalist, sitting across from me at the table.

Montenegro

- What inspires you?

Light, colors, sun rays and ornate shadows. Unusual plot, expressive face, but just good weather or just snowing. Nature and people are the main inspirer! The picture is not born spontaneously. The seen plot is turned over, redone in the head, and only then something turns out. I want to consolidate some point that turned out and when it succeeds, a new wave of inspiration comes.

- Through art you express your bright feelings or vice versa pain, sadness?

Happiness or unhappiness are transient states. In painting, I express not so much my emotions as my view of the world and attitude to it.

Montenegro

- Does belonging to the family of Count Morkov somehow influence your life?

I regard this as an interesting fact of history, nothing more. In life, it’s important not what your ancestors were, but what you personally achieved. Although most of my life I knew about it very fragmentarily.

France. The descendants of the Counts of Morkov now living at the La Serpolette villa in Nitsa, which once belonged to one of the heirs of this kind, Count Nikolai Dmitrievich Morkov. From left to right: Elizabeth Mayor, Pierre Cristofari, Dmitry Morkov - Anna’s son, Anna Davydchenko and Marina Bumagina - Anna’s mother.

You understand that in the early Soviet Union, belonging to the nobility, and even highly titled, was life-threatening, and in the late USSR it was simply not recommended to mention this. Therefore, of those who knew about this, let’s say the children of my great-grandfather of the last person who bore the title of count, Irakli Dmitrivech Morkov, preferred not to talk about it. My grandmother - his daughter told her mother very, very poorly. This was far from the subject of daily conversation. In an amazing way, photographs of the great-grandfather were preserved at home.

France. Great-great-grandfather of Anna Davydchenko, Count Irakli Dmitrievich Morkov with children. Photo taken in Nice in the 1916th year. Second from right is Anna Davydchenko’s grandmother, Evgenia Iraklievna Morkova.

We also knew about Vasily Tropinin, but, in general, not very much. What I know now more, I owe more to my second husband. In the early 2000s, he heard about the existence of the Russian Noble Assembly and decided that I should become a member, for this I had to collect metrics, marriage certificates and other documents about my ancestors, proving a direct kinship. We began to correspond with archives, drove through them ourselves, painstakingly collecting documents. As a result, a whole archive of my own was accumulated at home, consisting of decisions of noble assemblies, metric statements, track records, etc. My husband even created and for some time managed a website dedicated to my ancestors.

On the open air in the Vladimir region Murom On the Oka River

- Your ancestors were fond of painting?

My relatives learned to draw and made good drawings. The family archive contains the works of my mother, grandmother, great-grandmother… Before me, only the cousins ​​of my grandfather and grandfather, whom I mentioned earlier, were professional artists. And although the ability to draw was instilled in all noble children, and my distant ancestors were taught by the well-known early 19th century novelist V.A. Tropinin, only I became a professional artist.

- How do you manage to combine family life, work and creativity?

It is more difficult for a woman to be an artist. I had to sleep less, relax less. Until his son turned 12 years old, there was simply no creativity. And when he matured and time appeared, the abyss in the artistic development that arose during this time had to be overcome at an accelerated pace and often at the expense of the family. My mother, son and husband have provided and are providing me with great support and understanding.

Burma, Yangon. With husband Nicholas in a Buddhist pagoda

- Husband turns a blind eye to some everyday problems for you to write?

He does not open them (laughs).

- What are you dreaming about?

Like any woman, I dream of happiness, health and well-being for myself and my family. As an artist, I would like my work to appeal to a wide range of people, from art lovers to gallery owners. The foregoing is quite feasible, I hope. And there is an impossible dream. Since it so happened that I belong to the family to which Tropinin was related, I dream of holding an exhibition of my works in the Tropinin Museum and Moscow artists of his time. It seems to me that this would be symbolic - a descendant of those whose serf artist he had once been exhibited in his museum. Of course, the museum is not an art site, and not a gallery, because such an exhibition is impossible, but as they say - dreaming is not harmful… (laughs).

Anna Davydchenko at the Tropinin Museum

- Where can I see your work?

In the salons of Feodosia, Koktebel, Yalta, Simferopol, Kiev, Moscow, St. Petersburg, but most of all - on the Internet, on social networks, on my page the best, in my opinion, profile website of Runet https://countessart.in.gallerix.ru . In the search engine you can find all the links to my work using the hashtag #CountessArt .

- Thank!

Interview for Gallerix.ru recorded in Simferopol Lena Dancer

Anna Davydchenko at the opening of her anniversary solo exhibition