Art Kaleidoscope

Between art and craft

Yellow color for Vincent Van Gogh

Cafe Terrace at Night, 1888. Yellow color for Vincent Van Gogh

Cafe Terrace at Night, 1888. Yellow color for Vincent Van Gogh

Yellow color for Vincent Van Gogh

In fact, Yellow was a favorite color of Vincent Van Gogh. Indeed, the color lives in most of his paintings – sunflowers, wheat ears, landscapes at harvest time, and in the light of the sun. Since the stay in Arles, the yellow color is becoming increasingly important in the paintings of the artist. On the one hand, he was assigned to it by the nature of southern France. But on the other hand, he was an eccentric artist. In Arles, Van Gogh rented a small house that he wanted, and in reality painted in yellow.
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Patricia Buckley Moss porcelain brooches

Patricia Buckley Moss porcelain brooches

Vintage “Chorus Line” oval brooch. Gold tone jewelry alloy, porcelain, enamels. 6 cm. Patricia Buckley Moss porcelain brooches

Patricia Buckley Moss porcelain brooches
Talented American artist Patricia Buckley Moss has created a whole gallery of paintings, brooches, and Christmas-tree decorations that you cannot confuse with any others. Country landscapes, people, animals, children, and, of course, her unique geese – they are so wonderful!
Patricia Buckley Moss began to produce brooches in limited quantities for her foundation engaged in helping children with learning difficulties. Each year, she produced one or two kinds of brooches, and each of them has a serial number.
Born on May 20, 1933 in New York, Patricia Buckley Moss attended the fine arts school in Manhattan. Diagnosed with dyslexia and having difficulty communicating and teaching in high school, she struggled with both diagnosis and problems. Shortly after graduating from college in 1955, she married a chemical engineer Jack Moss and moved with her family to Virginia. By the way, she and her husband have six children.
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Russian artist jeweler Alexey Semanin

Birth. Pendant. Materials - silver, gold, opal. Work by Russian artist jeweler Alexey Semanin

Birth. Pendant. Materials – silver, gold, opal. Work by Russian artist jeweler Alexey Semanin

Russian artist jeweler Alexey Semanin
Born in 1975, Alexey Semanin graduated from the Suzdal Art and Restoration School, and worked at the Ulyanovsk Art Museum as a restorer. He spent several years in Stockholm, working as a designer, but not forgetting the jewelry art. Then he settled in Moscow.
Alexey, as a professional restorer, owns both old-fashioned and modern technologies. He is able to work with the most diverse materials – metal, stones, wood, including painting, gold leaf, and plastic. With an ingenious mixture of various materials and techniques, he creates unprecedented complex textures and color effects, and with their help, archetypical images filled with philosophical content. Main motifs – Angels, birds, women, and animals. Strange archaic, but not ethnic, things that must not only be worn, but also examined, thought about them, endow them with meanings, and associate memories with them. In short, the genre of his works – Amulets.
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Unique art of Perm wooden sculpture

Unique art of Perm wooden sculpture

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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Ural stone cutter Viktor Vasiliev

Ural stone cutter Viktor Vasiliev

Crocuses. 2004. Amethyst, citrine, nephrite, chalcedony, metal. Work by Ural stone cutter Viktor Vasiliev

Ural stone cutter Viktor Vasiliev
Born 10 April 1954, Viktor Vasilyev is a talented artist-stone cutter, master of stone cutting art, who works mainly in the genre of floristics. A former geologist, head of the Vasilyev Stone-cutting Workshop. Awarded the Order of Denisov-Uralsky.
According to the master, the world of stone is familiar to him since childhood, because Nizhny Tagil and its surroundings are a real natural treasure. Participation in the work of the club “Polyus”, classes in the geological club and art studio helped Victor understand the scientific and aesthetic value of minerals. And further study in the geological technical school and at the Geological Faculty of Perm University is quite natural.
Professional miner Vasiliev worked in mines and lovingly collected minerals. To discover and show the beauty of minerals, for example, variegated jasper, it was required to master the methods of its processing, which he later applied in the decorative composition “The island of Buyan” (1995)
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Master of garden sculpture Svetlana Semyonova

Master of garden sculpture Svetlana Semyonova

‘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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Naive Painting by English artist Beryl Cook

Naive Painting by English artist Beryl Cook

Naive Painting by English artist Beryl Cook (10 September 1926 – 28 May 2008)

Naive Painting by English artist Beryl Cook
Undoubtedly, there is a difference between an amateur and a naive artist. The amateur is engaged in painting for the sake of pure pleasure, and considers this occupation his hobby. However, a naive artist, not being a professional, continues to work and learns to use traditional techniques, but this does not mean that his painting is imperfect. In addition, the naive artist is more obsessed, and his lack of academic training often leads to the development of a bright individual style. And this is true with regard to Beryl Cook, who for the first four years of work became famous throughout the country.

Born 10 September 1926 in Reading, a bustling town 40 km west of London, Beryl Cook created her first picture only 37 years later. Happily married, she lived in the former Rhodesia, when she suddenly had the idea to draw a portrait of her neighbor – a large Indian woman. This portrait remained her only work until she and her family returned to England, where they settled in Cornwall, on the remote south-west coast of the country.
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