Svetlana Druzhkova, "Bird of Happiness" Automatic translate

The paintings of the St. Petersburg artist Svetlana Druzhkova evoke exactly this emotional verbal sigh - exhale!!! Probably because the bulk of her work is devoted to the theme of the beauty of our native flowers. And these are not just still lifes or landscapes, but portraits of flowers. Group and personal, selected by an admirer, in vases or living freely and allowing one to admire themselves in the surrounding Russian nature. Of course, they are similar to each other, like close relatives, but their loved ones distinguish them, like a mother of twins. The artist paints each flower separately with love and understanding, talking with each about its own. Together - this is a single family, a single native world, an amazing harmonious chord. Yes, here a musical association has finally arisen, despite the olfactory-charming one. After all, the entire twentieth century, painting was associated with music, especially with the discoveries of abstractionism. Our artist, who thinks in color, did not pass by this temptation. Her abstractions are musical and village-like, like folklore in rags. But the sensitive artist senses the aroma of color in the simple life of our people. The delightful suite of village holidays and the living existence of simple city courtyards leaves priceless historical evidence, and a breath of that very atmosphere, through the plot and, of course, through color, its element.

Svetlana Druzhkova’s work is often attributed to a very significant trend in contemporary art - primitivism or naive, famous in France as "Coeur Sacre" or in Russian as the artists of the "Sacred Heart". This term has not taken root in our country, although our primitivists are highly valued in world art. But, I think that, in relation to the expression of the soul in the colors of Svetlana Semenovna Druzhkova, it is quite appropriate to remember it!

Nikolay Blagodatov, January 2023, St. Petersburg.

• Member of the Criticism and Art Criticism Section of the Russian Union of Artists
• Member of the Association of Art Critics (IFA)
• Member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Contemporary Art

Svetlana Semenovna Druzhkova

She was born in 1945 during evacuation to Leninabad (Tajikistan). She spent her childhood and youth in the Urals, where she began to study music professionally. In 1964, she graduated from the Glinka Music College and taught piano at a music school for thirty years. In 1997, she moved to St. Petersburg. While continuing her music studies, she became interested in painting and began drawing. In 2000-2005, she studied at the Contrast School-Studio under the direction of V. B. Shraga. She continued her studies in the studios of artists D. A. Levitin, G. P. Gubanov, V. D. Tabulinsky.

Svetlana Druzhkova has participated in over 90 exhibitions in Russia and abroad, including 20 solo exhibitions. The most significant group exhibitions: Union of Artists of St. Petersburg, Art Center "Pushkinskaya 10", Exhibition Hall of the Center of Books and Graphics, Creative Union of Artists IFA, presentation in the Russian Museum, etc.

International exhibitions:

• Turkey, Ankara 2005 – 2008
• Finland, Imatra, Lappeenranta 2004, 2008, 2009
• Israel, Beer Sheva, Tel Aviv 2007, 2012, 2017
• Germany, Cologne 2009
• Belarus, Vitebsk "INSITA", 2012, 2016, 2020, 2025
• Moscow, "FESTNAIVE" 2006, 2010, 2013, 2017
• Rzhev 2011

Works in collections:

• Museum of Russian Lubok and Naive Art, Moscow.
• Paul Kondas Museum, Viljandi, Estonia
• Regional Methodological Center of Folk Art, Vitebsk, Belarus.
• Gallery "Gina", Tel Aviv, Israel.
• Gallery "EL Prado", Ankara, Türkiye.
• Gallery "Borey", Saint Petersburg, Russia.
• Gallery "Herzen 6", Pskov, Russia.

Member of the Creative Union of Artists "Union of Arts of Russia" since 2005.

Member of the Creative Association "Steps" since 2007.

Paintings by S. Druzhkova are included in the three-volume encyclopedia publication “Artists who saw the world naively”, 2020.

Member of the Creative Union of Artists IFA since 2021.