For the painter Olga Fokina, her art is a universal voice, using which she can freely express love for her homeland. She was born in the village of Sharanga, and spent her childhood and youth in the village of Varnavino near Nizhny Novgorod, surrounded by the picturesque taiga. Having graduated from the art department of the Varnavino Children’s Art School, she entered the Nizhny Novgorod School of Arts, from where she graduated in 2000.
Since childhood, Fokina dreamed of becoming a school teacher, so after having studied at the art and graphic faculty of the Nikolai Nekrasov Kostroma State University, she returned to her native village of Varnavino, where she got a job as a teacher at a children’s art school. In this profession, she found her calling: in 2007 she became the deputy director of the Children’s Art School No. 1 in Nizhny Novgorod.
Teaching, art and love for the Nizhny Novgorod places are inseparable in her life: together with her students, Fokina often went to the open air to make taiga sketches. She donated the resulting paintings to the Varnavino Museum of History and Art: she painted the landscape “Village of Bochkarikha” at one of the visiting classes, it is part of the etude series “In the Plein Air”.
Village of Bochkarikha is located within the territory of Varnavino district of the Nizhny Novgorod region. It was to these picturesque places that Fokina often went for the open air sessions: she believes that this picturesque region inspires lots of good paintings. The landscape “Village of Bochkarikha” shows the austere beauty of northern Russian nature, and the harmony of the nature and people. Most of the space of the picture is taken by the endless sloping meadow, it seems to draw the eye from the rural wooden houses lined up on the horizon. This solution is not by chance: this is the way the painter conveys a sense of the endlessness of the Russian nature to the viewers.
At the same time, Fokina masterfully brightens this feeling by working with light and color. Depicting a peaceful and cozy Russian village on a beautiful sunny summer day, the painter fills the picture with warmth, joy and tranquility. Due to the harmonious blend of green colors and iridescent shades of field grasses, with small blotches of flowers, the viewers find themselves immersed in the atmosphere of a July or August noon.
Since childhood, Fokina dreamed of becoming a school teacher, so after having studied at the art and graphic faculty of the Nikolai Nekrasov Kostroma State University, she returned to her native village of Varnavino, where she got a job as a teacher at a children’s art school. In this profession, she found her calling: in 2007 she became the deputy director of the Children’s Art School No. 1 in Nizhny Novgorod.
Teaching, art and love for the Nizhny Novgorod places are inseparable in her life: together with her students, Fokina often went to the open air to make taiga sketches. She donated the resulting paintings to the Varnavino Museum of History and Art: she painted the landscape “Village of Bochkarikha” at one of the visiting classes, it is part of the etude series “In the Plein Air”.
Village of Bochkarikha is located within the territory of Varnavino district of the Nizhny Novgorod region. It was to these picturesque places that Fokina often went for the open air sessions: she believes that this picturesque region inspires lots of good paintings. The landscape “Village of Bochkarikha” shows the austere beauty of northern Russian nature, and the harmony of the nature and people. Most of the space of the picture is taken by the endless sloping meadow, it seems to draw the eye from the rural wooden houses lined up on the horizon. This solution is not by chance: this is the way the painter conveys a sense of the endlessness of the Russian nature to the viewers.
At the same time, Fokina masterfully brightens this feeling by working with light and color. Depicting a peaceful and cozy Russian village on a beautiful sunny summer day, the painter fills the picture with warmth, joy and tranquility. Due to the harmonious blend of green colors and iridescent shades of field grasses, with small blotches of flowers, the viewers find themselves immersed in the atmosphere of a July or August noon.
