Vologda painting is a direction of decorative art of the peoples of the north of the country. Wood painting has been known in Russia for a long time, it developed everywhere, in all areas of a vast territory. The difference was in the technology of preparing the product for work, in the set of traditional ornaments, in the predominance of any colors. In the Vologda Oblast alone, more than ten types of murals are known, reflecting the peculiarity of the northern region and the specific places in which they appeared.
Vologda art painting
If you look at the map of the Vologda Oblast, there are no settlements where this handicraft would not develop. Residents of the shores of the Northern Dvina, Sukhon, tributaries of the South and Luz, as well as of the central and western regions of the Vologda province, decorated their homes, household utensils, furniture, tools, dishes with drawings peculiar only to their locality. No one knows how many types of murals have been lost, but those that have been preserved are the values of Russian culture.
The harsh region, rich in forest, demanded stamina from people and contributed to self-expression in the form of the development of crafts related to the warmth of wood. First, carving appeared, and the Vologda painting of wooden products arose much later. She picked up the topics proposed by the earlier craft, and significantly expanded them, leaving in her arsenal the techniques and technologies of the area.
Painting technique
In folk art, two styles of drawing a picture on a product are distinguished: graphic and free-hand (brush stroke).
In the north, samples of graphic painting that date back to the 17th century are known. She made out household items: spinning wheels, boxes, chests, buckets, painted plates. The technique is as follows: a clear outline of the drawing is applied to the product, which is then painted with two or three colors. Masters use tempera paints. Several local craft centers of the Vologda Oblast are known that operate in such a technique.
A free-brush, pictorial or brushstroke drawing appeared in the Russian North later, at the beginning of the 19th century. But he himself was far from new, his roots go back to the deep past. The execution technique differs fundamentally from the graphic one. The artist does not apply a preliminary contour, he begins to write on a “clean” product, immediately applying strokes of paint. At the same time, the hand moves freely, the borders of the image are somewhat blurred, there is no symmetry. It turns out a more believable, "vital" picture.
This technique often uses the technique of applying two paints at once to a brush: color and white. With one stroke, the master applies the main paint and immediately sets off, enhances its sound with a whitening vibrant. Free-brush painting in the Vologda Oblast was most often found in the painting of large furniture or houses: on eaves, gables, shutters.
Kharov painting
In the Kharovsky district, free-hand technology with graphic animation and lightening is used to paint wooden products. Traditionally, the murals of this area depicted plant subjects and, oddly enough, lions. Local residents considered this beast a talisman for their homes. The lions in the drawings are very funny. They look like dogs, now cats, then stand on their hind legs. Less often people and birds were drawn. Background colors were dominated by brown, green, maroon. Paints for painting were used in brown, blue, green colors.
Painted items were found by members of a search expedition in the Kharovsky district. There are fewer of them, and the task of artists trying to revive this craft is to save the samples found, study and copy them.
Glubokovskaya painting
In the north-east of the Vologda Oblast, in the remote village of Glubokovka, a painting was born consisting of classical elements that combine into an intricate pattern. In fact, there were several villages, but this was the name of the painting. Glubokovskaya painting is so rich in various elements that it is difficult to list all of them. More often than others, buds, curls, drops, braces and many others are used. Early works were dominated by olive-brown colors, later - orange and red-brown.
Spinning wheels, cabinets, doors, were painted with such a painting. Modern masters with great art reproduce painting elements on household utensils. A bread-box in Glubokovsky style will decorate any kitchen and will cheer up the hostess. A calm bouquet of large curls is a traditional element of Glubokovo painting.
Gayutinsky painting
The area of the Vologda region, located in the southwest, borders on the Yaroslavl region. Here was born a graphic, bright, eye-loving painting. A small pattern of dots and petals, shoots and seeds creates a tree or a flower. The peculiarity of Gayutinsky painting in the symmetrical filling of the plane, as if a fragment is being stamped throughout the product. A lot of bright colors are involved in the creation of the painting: red, orange, green, gold. And all this beauty is superimposed on a red background. Experts believe that the constantly depicted fantastic plant is the World Tree connecting Earth and Sky and scattering the seeds of all plants. If so, then the ornament recalls our pagan roots.
Previously, spinning wheels were most often decorated with this pattern - those that were made as a gift to a girl or woman. Modern Vologda artists decorate wooden plates, Easter eggs, salt shakers and other souvenirs.
Sheksninskaya painting
Bright, elegant painting, suitable only for a holiday or decoration, belongs to the category of little-studied. It was created on the territory bordering the Yaroslavl and Novgorod provinces. A gilded pattern prevails against a bright red background, which is why residents of the Sheksninsky district call it “gilded”.
The mural uses fantastic plants interwoven into a beautiful ornament. On plants unprecedented flowers and berries, sometimes there are birds of paradise.
Sheksninskaya painting resembles the golden Khokhloma, born in the Nizhny Novgorod region. How similar equipment could be far in the north of the country? It turns out that the origins of both of these paintings were ornaments of Russian icons and manuscript books. But the technology for performing artistic painting in these areas is different.
Supreme painting
This painting refers to free-hand. The image of the picture, in this case, a floral ribbon, looks a bit blurry, very natural and voluminous. Plants always prevailed in the ornament: berries, flowers, leaves.
Vologda Khokhloma
This style was not known to our ancestors. Novelty is its hallmark. He was born at the end of the 20th century in a modern workshop. The art association "Hope" rallied local like-minded masters. They studied and revived certain types of Vologda paintings and became interested in the art of the masters of the city of Semenov ("Golden Khokhloma"). Reproducing their manufacturing technology, they made some changes and got a very interesting result.
In the city of Semenov, a layer of “ore” is applied to the surface of the product - a solution containing tin. This gives the item a silver color. Next, a layer of drying oil is applied, and the product is sent to the oven. From high temperature, tin and drying oil interact, and the surface color turns into gold. According to it, and is the main painting.
And the northerners, having canceled the coating with drying oil, got a silver, frosty, Vologda shade at the exit from the furnace. So new products are born in the crafts workshops of the Vologda Oblast.
The experience gained by the masters has been passed from hand to hand for centuries. Thus, we can see today the preserved painting technique, as a result of the work of many generations. Continuity of traditions allows contemporary artists to work in a style created centuries ago by masters of the Vologda Oblast.
Thanks to their skill, the most ordinary object, painted with a colorful pattern, turns into a festive, elegant thing, reflecting the identity of a particular area of the northern region. But all together they are called “Vologda murals”.