NORTHERN PAINTINGS

The Mezen (Palashchelie) painting is considered to be the most ancient one. This painting stands apart from other types of paintings. It dramatically differs from the bright colors on Borok’s spinning wheels and full-blown roses on Kargopol items because of its restrained color. A lot of people tried to understand its mysterious world! Its origins were sought in ancient rock carvings, a connection with ancient Greek styles was indicated. The village of Palashchelie was first mentioned as a center of the painting in 1904. However, the craft itself appeared much earlier here. Mezen masters used only two colors for painting: red that was ochre extracted from coastal clay and black which was soot mixed with a solution of larch resin. They worked with a capercaillie feather or a pointed stick and a brush, which was often made from a strand hair. The painting was covered with drying oil. The center of the spinning wheel painting was the Palashchelie village in the Leshukonsky District of Arkhangelsk region.


Permogorye is a group of villages in the Krasnoborsky district of the Arkhangelsk region which are located relatively close to the Northern Dvina. The masters lived in villages located in the Krasnoborsky district (in particular, the Permogorie village). The palette of the paintings is dominated by white background and color red that was the main color of the pattern. They are shaded by yellow and green. A light black outline gives the paintings clarity. Genre scenes accompanied by captions are distinctive features of Permogorie painting. Another traditional motif is the portrayal of the legendary bird Sirin. The range of painted objects is extremely wide — spinning wheels, cradles, sleds and arches are very colorful. Detailed fine painting covers the entire product like a carpet.


<img width="48%" alt="мезень.jpg" src="/upload/medialibrary/603/f2cvwdr731ybpkfpkayz5int8wclilej.jpg" height=""> <img width="48%" alt="пермогорская.jpg" src="/upload/medialibrary/74a/qgicjgpjvkyiy5s9qbkdoz9esyrmuvl6.jpg" height=""> 


Shenkursk (Vazhye) painting. The masters of this painting lived in villages along the banks of the rivers Vaga, Ustya and Kokshenga. The so-called Shenkurks paintings are limited only to the painting of spinning wheels and other household items. There were two types of painting. The first, more common, is three light flowers on a red background of the axle which were arranged vertically. They resemble a rose but are heavily ornamented and there are an infinite variations of ornamentation options. The main center of such paintings is the Nizhnyaya Edma village. Another type of paintings is three red flowers that are depicted on a red background. However, style and pattern are different from the previous one: the flowers are loose, each of them has six petals and they are painted with light strokes that are fading towards the center. Leaves and herbs have a light silhouette, thinning to the edge. The painting is characterized by symmetry and balance. In the central regions Povazhye, a bright artistic culture of house painting has developed. The interiors of houses, as well as pediments, linings of balconies and roof overhangs were decorated with paintings there.


The Boretskaya and Nizhnyaya Toyma paintings represent two forms of this kind of folk art. The Borok village stands on the Northern Dvina and located in the Vinogradovsky District of Arkhangelsk region. It belongs to the most ancient settlement which was known since the 15th century, it is a significant center of spinning wheel painting. The second form originated in many villages along the Nizhnyaya Toyma River (Verkhnetoyemsky District of Arkhangelsk region). These paintings are quite similar but have unique features that are noticeable when compared in detail. The composition and ornament have much in common with iconography and ancient Russian book paintings. Generally, all of them are neat, multicolored, have a three-tiered pattern with gold on a white background and a red grass pattern. The upper part tends to include two golden windows and between them there is a multicolored patterned bush on which a mythical red bird with green wings is depicted. In the middle part (that has a semicircle) there is a «tree of life» and on the sides there are two birds. The lower part of the spinning wheel shows the arrival of a groom on a red or golden horse.


<img width="48%" src="/upload/medialibrary/cb7/37j38sfxkpcacqz0gp9nbxnaojw0b7t7.png" height="" alt="прялки"> <img width="48%" src="/upload/medialibrary/f90/s78z4wfyh9gdnqkwl4n3mh0t6ppjp3ay.jpg" height="" alt="борецкая"> 


The Puchuga painting is spread around the village of Puchuga that is located north of the Nizhnyaya Toyma, 25 km from the village of Borok (Verkhnetoyemsky District of Arkhangelsk region). The range of its topics is quite wide. On these paintings one can find both scenes of peasant labor (spinning, feeding birds, field work, etc.) and recreation scenes (tea drinking, etc.). These paintings are often accompanied by moralizing or ironic captions. The axle of the spinning wheel consists of three parts. In the upper part there is a golden window with fancy flowers, between them there is a mythical bird. In the middle part there is a «tree of life» with florid branches that is cyclic in an arched frame shape, birds are also located on the sides. In the lower part of the painting there is a traditional wedding departure with golden and green horses on a white background and a carriage on which a male figure is visible. Blank space between all the parts of the painting is filled with patterns of red bracketed grass.


Rakul painting. The core of the Rakul painting is considered to be Ulyanovsk village in the Krasnoborsky District of Arkhangelsk region — one of the villages along the Rakulka River, which flows into the Northern Dvina. The vast majority of the painted items were spinning wheels. They also painted berries baskets, boxes, cribs. The color of the painting is distinguished by great nobility: a yellow-ochre background and four colors — redish-orange, green, red-blue and blue. White color was used to paint the outlines in form of semicircles. The subtle shape of the elements, smooth curves and turns are emphasized by a thin black contour, bundles of tendrils in the leaves’ basis. There are no genre scenes in the paintings. There are also no accompanying captions, which Permogorskaya painting abounds with.


<img width="48%" alt="пучужская.jpg" src="/upload/medialibrary/452/t17tcq9k44vnvktnfl81huohe3au1o3c.jpg" height=""> <img width="48%" src="/upload/medialibrary/267/96wdvxp3csfxi3shi3n42kol89hk2i58.jpg" height="" alt="ракульская"> 


Uftyuga painting. The name comes from the river Uftyuga in Krasnoborsky District of Arkhangelsk region. Unique paintings of the houses’ interiors have been preserved in these places. Whole families were engaged in painting birch bark containers known throughout the north and distributed at various fairs, including the Moscow ones. The preferred background of the painting was colored in reddish-orange or reddish-brown. The main motif is a flexible twig with leaves and flowers, next to which there are often images of graceful birds. The spinning wheels of the second Uftyuga center are distinctly archaic. The front side shows a tree with a straight stem, leaves or flowers symmetrically extending from the sides and a solar rosette.


Olonetskaya painting takes a special place among different peasant paintings. Its name comes from the place of distribution in the Olonets Governorate which included Kargopolsky District and the territory of the Lake Kenozero at the end of the 17th — beginning of the 19th century. Olonetskaya painting is one of the types of free-brush painting. The motifs of the Olonetskaya painting are interconnected with the natural world — trees, flowerpots, flowers, more often red roses and fabulous tulips. The paintings expressed man’s love for nature and the ability to rejoice in its beauty. The motifs of blossoming trees and flowerpots, birds and lions reminded people of summer and the sun. The motifs-symbols were meaningful and succinct in its content. Its interpretation sometimes changed depending on the item on which they were painted or the similarity to other motifs. The core of the decoration was a floral pattern in the form of an elongated bouquet spread out on a surface. The painting is decorative, has a large-scale picture and a loose and easy brush style. Sometimes there are spinning wheels with this type of painting on which the painting is done more succinct and symmetrically. Kargopol paintings usually have a similar floral pattern, sometimes it is a bouquet of four red roses in a vase. The flowers’ leaves have a simple shape.


<img width="48%" src="/upload/medialibrary/005/buue2pwz1ngznfo8bcreatxgf0g3pkt0.jpg" height="" alt="уфтюжская"> <img width="48%" alt="важская .jpg" src="/upload/medialibrary/5fd/m7ffxyghksh3s1t1q698hx89z1dxorky.jpg" height=""> 


Photo credits to: TIC Krasnoborsk, open source internet 

Information was prepared by the staff of the Arkhangelsk Regional Scientific Library named after N.A. Dobrolyubova, more information on the website <a href="http://cultnord.ru/">http://cultnord.ru/</a>

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