Angel with a trumpet. XIX century. Sherya village. Unique art of Perm wooden sculpture

Unique art of Perm wooden sculpture
The age of a wooden man is a little longer than a human and much shorter than a century of its bronze and stone counterparts. Although equally threatened by fire and dampness, but on the other hand, it travels more easily, transforms, and renews. Besides, it is egalitarian, because wood is inexpensive and affordable, and anyone can learn the skills of a carver.
But Perm wooden sculpture is still a riddle. This unusually expressive art has no youth, neither is it ever old. It appeared at the turn of the 17th-18th centuries as a mature phenomenon. It quickly absorbs a lot of styles, tries a lot of various techniques. Also, it shows itself in all its splendor and bloom and disappears, not having had time to exhaust its possibilities. It has no canons, more precisely, it uses different canons, but as a whim, and not as a dogma.
Noteworthy, Perm wooden sculpture almost did not save the names of their masters, but in every detail bears the imprint of their individuality. Common features can be traced, even with ease – and disappear with the same ease. The only undoubtedly common feature for all works is non comformism. Rules exist to violate them. Aliens from the White Sea, immigrants from Polish churches, monochrome replicates of high classicism are accepted into this silent wooden fraternity without objection. But let’s start from the threshold and further: deep down and up.
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‘Naiad with fish’. Made of chamotte clay with the use of engobes and glazes. Master of garden sculpture Svetlana Semyonova

Master of garden sculpture Svetlana Semyonova
Born in Kaliningrad of Moscow region, Svetlana Semyonova graduated from the Moscow Art college with the diploma of artist-decorator. Participant of regional and national art exhibitions since 1999, she became a member of the Moscow Union of Artists in 2002. Art works created by Svetlana Semyonova are in the museums of Pavel Bazhov in Ekaterinburg (Christmas balls) and in the Sarov City Art Gallery. Also, in private collections in Russia and abroad.
Traditionally, the artist uses for her garden sculptures – chamotte clay, and also works with bronze. In addition, Moscow based artist likes painting Christmas balls. Noteworthy, each sculpture created by Svetlana is a unique work of art, made in a single copy.
According to Svetlana, her favorite material is ceramics and she enjoys the whole creative process, from the beginning to the end. “You can dream up here not only with the form, but also with the color. This material is beautiful and cunning at the same time. You never know exactly what you will get as a result”.
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Family angel with one baby. Wooden sculpture 23-26 cm. Protecting angels by wood carver Nikolay Shiroky

Protecting angels by wood carver Nikolay Shiroky
Angels that remind us the most important is the family. Mom, Dad and their baby. No matter, a baby or an adult, parents always want to hide him under the wing from all sorrows and difficulties, and the angel can do it. The angel can cover the whole family with wings and protect it.
Russian artist wood carver Nikolai Shiroky makes amazing angels from birch, oak, and other trees. Among these angel there are no similar, each is unique and waits for its owner. According to Nikolay, he simply can not help making angels – it’s not he who chose his work, but the work chose him.
Noteworthy, angels created by Shiroky have no face, but they have a mood. Everyone to whom they “fly away” from under the light hand of the master, believe that angels bring happiness. Traditionally, Nikolay created unique author’s works: furniture, boxes and other interior items. In fact, angels came to his life about four years ago, and, as the master himself says, it was a miracle. Engaged in wood carving for about 20 years, now in any piece of wood he sees an angel which he must create. At first Nikolai simply made angels as a hobby and gave them to people. And then the creation of angels from wood became his main work.
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Aviator. Stone Carving Art by Altai master Yury Shumov

Stone Carving Art by Altai master Yury Shumov

Born in 1983 in the town of Berezovka, in 1998 Yury Shumov entered the Lyceum in Biysk, where he studied for four years, to become “Artist-Master of Decorative and Applied Art”. At the end of the lyceum in 2002 he entered the Biysk Pedagogical University the artistic and graphic department. In addition, the same year he got a job as an art teacher at the Major Secondary School in Charyshsky District. But the prospect of teaching and long studying at the university did not inspire him. The paper and routine work interfered with self-realization and development of his own creative potential.
So, in 2003 he moved to Kolyvan, to the stone-cutting plant, and worked there as a polisher of stone products. Six months later, he was engaged in bulk carving on the stone. And all this time he, along with his brothers, built a workshop in Berezovka, bought tools, manufactured machines, collected stones, and precious materials for work. By the autumn of 2008 the workshop was ready. The first success came in 2010, when they won the 1st place in Charyshsky and Solonshensky district among the participants of the exhibition in the nomination “Handicraft production”.
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Angel with birds. Camomile ceramic angels by Aram Hunanyan

Camomile ceramic angels by Aram Hunanyan
Armenian ceramic artist Aram Hunanyan has been working with clay for more than 20 years. He participates in numerous exhibitions, and his works are known not only in Armenia, but also in other countries.
The master has started to do his unusual daisy angels (as well as angels with other flowers) in 2011. The image of the angel appeared not at once, gradually, step by step. And now the angels made by Aram can be recognized immediately. These figures are 10 to 40 cm high, they are all distinguished by the disproportion of the head and body, but this gives them a special charm. These angels are a bit naive and thoughtful, kind and loving. Meanwhile, the angels remind me of icons, and the master has pure soul and spirit, and the space around him is harmonious – a beautiful, well-groomed workshop.
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Bust of Carl Faberge. Materials – quartz, malachite, jasper, silver. Metal work by P. Vetrov. Jewelry stone carving art by Anatoly Zhukov

Jewelry stone carving art by Anatoly Zhukov
Among contemporary genres in jewelry and lapidary art stone sculpture depicting busts of historical figures are rare. Such art requires the accuracy and detail of the exterior of a human immortalized in stone. Renowned Yekaterinburg master Anatoly Ivanovich Zhukov has created the series of historical busts in this “rare” stone-cutting art genre.
Yekaterinburg artist stone-cutter, Zhukov is a master of stone-cutting and art restorer of the highest category. He is an Honored lapidary artist, Commander of the Order of AK Denisov-Uralsky, and a member of the Russian Artists’ Union (1995).
The master’s works are kept in museums in Moscow (Russian Museum of Decorative-Applied and Folk Art) and St. Petersburg (Hermitage). In addition, museums in Tyumen, Chelyabinsk, Miass, Orenburg, Krasnoyarsk, Barnaul, Sergiev Posad, Kemerovo, Khanty-Mansiysk, Yekaterinburg and the Sverdlovsk region. Also, foreign collections (state and private), as well as private collections in Russia’s cultural elite, including Vladimir Putin, and Dmitry Medvedev.
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Evening Solitaire. (Zamoskvoretskaya Pomona). From the Russian Series. Terracotta, glaze, toning, modeling. 2009. Dmitry Puchkov exquisite terracotta sculpture

Dmitry Puchkov exquisite terracotta sculpture

Russian ceramic artist and sculptor Dmitry Puchkov was born in 1969 in Moscow, where he lives to this day. Member of the International Art Fund. Although he works with other ceramic materials (fire-clay, earthenware, porcelain), still, the basic material for his works the master chose terracotta. In modern sculpture terracotta particularly used as a material for sculpture of small forms, allowing to keep in the finished product the expressive conciseness and immediacy of live sketches. Working with terracotta, artists usually mold more conventional and less complicated sculptural forms, as the red clay is not porcelain, and much more fragile and all thin parts strive to break off from the main sculpture.
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