Natalia Ivanovna Buldakova (Smirnova) is a native of Zhezqazghan, Karaganda Oblast (current-day Kazakhstan) and a graduate of the Art and Graphic faculty of the Kostroma State Pedagogical Institute. In 1986, she began to actively take part in exhibitions of young artists, who argued that art had the right to develop in various directions which prioritized exploration, imagination and innovation in color and form.

The artist Natalia Buldakova sees portraiture as one of her favorite genres. Her vision of the genre has expanded beyond the framework of telling a story of the person in the portrait, showing their character and reflecting their mood. Their images are generalized and acquire a deeper, philosophical undertone. Natalia Buldakova believes that the main purpose of a portrait is to show the model’s unique inner world and to capture the features that make up the essence of their personality.

In 1989, the portrait of the “Girl in Red” attracted attention. The image created by the artist is incredibly expressive. The young woman in the portrait looks straight at the viewer. Her gaze is defiant and daring. It is as if she is trying to seize the viewer and pull them into a mystical game.

At the same time, the girl’s profile is elegantly outlined. The shape of her head and face are almost geometrical. The clear rhythm of the lines contrasts with the sensual intensity of the colors — the red of the girl’s clothes gives the painting a tense and dramatic feeling.

Even when painting a portrait, the artist is faithful to her favorite subject — the architecture of old Kostroma. The smooth curves in the background are the arches of the Red Rows (Gostiny Dvor). Architectural fragments acquire an archetypal character.

Natalia Buldakova’s understanding of the purposes of art are in line with modern artistic tendencies. Her craving for new artistic ways manifested itself in her experiments with texture.

To challenge traditional ideas about paintings, she made a rather bold move — she included cheesecloth into the structure of the canvas. By doing so, she initiated a play of materials: the dense surface of the canvas and the sparse texture of cheesecloth interact and combine to create a special rhythm and mood.