Exhibition "Roads of the open air" of the association of artists of the South of Russia "Wheel" Automatic translate

At the invitation of the Volga branch of the Russian Academy of Arts
and the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Saratov Region and the A.P. Bogolyubov Artists’ Union in Saratov, a traveling exhibition “The roads of the open air” of the Association of artists of the South of Russia “Wheel” is exhibited

Oleg Kalaytanov). The curator of the project is Svetlana Kuznetsova, first deputy chairman of the Volga branch of the Russian Academy of Arts.

The opening took place on September 24, 2019 at the A. Bogolyubov Saratov Art College (Universitetskaya, 59) as part of the reporting exhibitions following the summer open-airs and the Khvalynsky Etudes of K. S. Petrov-Vodkin Interregional Creativity Festival. This year, Stavropol artists: Oleg Kalaytanov (head of the association), Natalya Litosova, Anatoly Kakalov and Svetlana Kukueva (Novorossiysk), who were invited to participate in the open air and give master classes for students of art schools and gifted children, became active participants in the Festival in Khvalynsk..

The exhibition "Roads of the open air" has already been exhibited in the Art Gallery. KS Petrova-Vodkin in August of this year during the days of the Festival and aroused great interest from the Saratov artists, citizens and guests of Khvalynsk.

Honorary guests of the exhibition were the Governor of the Saratov Region Valery Radaev, the Minister of Culture Tatyana Garanina, the vice-president of the Russian Academy of Arts Konstantin Khudyakov.

In the Bogolyubovsky school, the exhibition is exhibited from September 24 to October 6, 2019 during the opening hours of the exhibition hall.

The “Wheel” Association of Artists of the South of Russia has been working for more than 19 years: a group of plein air artists, led by Oleg Kalaytanov, organizes annual open air plein airs and exhibitions in the North Caucasus. Since 2000, plein airs have been held in memory of the outstanding Russian painter Pavel Grechishkin. The phenomenon of continuity of the plein air tradition, a tireless desire to study the world around us formed the basis for the idea of ​​creating the "Wheel" movement.

Today the Wheel has in its permanent composition more than 25 participants from all over the Southern Federal District, as well as from Central Russia. For many years, open-air visits took place in the most picturesque places of the North Caucasus: dozens of different gorges and villages of the Karachay-Cherkess and Kabardino-Balkarian republics, the coast of Crimea and Abkhazia. Some artists took part in international open airs held in China, Italy, Montenegro, France, and Cyprus. Participants of plein airs recall them through the prism of their picturesque discoveries, which formed the basis of sketch studies, and subsequently easel paintings.

Members of the Wheel Association, belonging to different pictorial schools, gather in a group in order to work together, develop creatively, sharing experience with each other. Such a process contributes to the improvement of creative thought, the discovery of new pictorial and graphic techniques.

At the exhibition “Roads of the open air” in Saratov, paintings and sketches of 6 authors, members of the Creative Union of Russian Artists: Oleg Kalaitanov, Alexander Babich, Natalya Litosova, Svetlana Kukueva, Anatoly Kakalov, Anatoly Solovtsev are presented.

Oleg Kalaytanov presents several Crimean studies and studies devoted to the Caucasus. Artworks are made by acrylic. Plein air painting technique figurative, with decorative elements. He manages to exaggerate the plot perfectly, summarizing the seen features of the natural landscape. Coloristic harmony on canvas is achieved through many years of plein air practice of observing nature. The vivid nature of the breaks of the Crimean coastal line formed the basis of bold compositional searches. Autumn motifs of mountain gorges, to a greater extent, revealed the author’s palette.

Natalia Litosova proposed sketches dedicated to the Stavropol Territory, several Crimean stories. Her acrylic painting technique is not much different from oil painting. For her, achieving the credibility of the transmission of nature is one of the priority tasks in the open air. Crimean stories written in the village of New World. Historically an iconic place, with a beautiful coastline - a real find for a landscape painter. Painting by Natalia Litosova can be attributed to both modern impressionism and realism. Through a completely objective fixation of reality, the author strives for a sensory perception of what is happening. The light in the paintings of Natalia Litosova acts as the main theme and means of artistic expression.

Etudes of Svetlana Kukueva, presented at the exhibition, were written in 2013 - 2018 at open airs in Novorossiysk and Karachay-Cherkessia, on creative trips to France and China. The value of this small collection of studies is in its geographical diversity. Each of them carries a piece of mood and flavor of the place of birth.

Anatoly Kakalov’s painting is distinguished by subtle coloristic solutions. Special touching and lyricism is achieved through the painting technique of stroke brushstroke. Landscape planes and shapes literally shimmer with a variety of shades, a subtle game of warmth and coldness. The plots of sketches are sometimes straightforward, but some “desert” and the simplicity of the motive are suggestive and kind of thoughtfulness. "Catch the eye" bright decorative still lifes.

The works of Alexander Babich presented at the exhibition were created in the last three years (2017-2019) in the format of participation in various creative projects: in the Plastovskaya Osen international plein air in the village of Prislonikha, Ulyanovsk Region, in the homeland of Arkady Plastov; two works were brought from North Ossetia from the republican painting workshop “South Palette” - the majestic image of Ossetia was conveyed through the artistic reflection of the ancient patrimonial towers near the village of Tsymiti. A full-scale sketch, written in an open air in the Karachay-Cherkess Republic in the village of Teberda, is interesting in its autumn palette. The state of nature is subtly conveyed: snowy peaks, early morning in the mountains.

Anatoly Solovtsev proposed three open-air works written in the foothills and valleys of the Caucasus.

The active open-air and exhibition activities of the participants of the “Wheel” Association of Artists of the South of Russia became a bright and significant event in the cultural life of the North Caucasus. The leadership of the Volga branch of the Russian Academy of Arts can declare with all responsibility that the invitation in 2019 to Stavropol artists to the Interregional Festival of Creativity “Khvalynsky Etudes KS Petrov-Vodkin” and their active participation in the main program of the two-week open-air - master classes, creative meetings and round tables - contributed to a noticeable increase in the quality of student plein air works, mutually beneficial creative exchange between art schools of the Volga region and the South of Russia, the revival of the plein air tradition o very relevant these days.