In front of us is a multi-figured genre composition. On a warm, clear autumn day, a group of Oryol writers gathered outdoors to talk about literature, share painful issues, read and listen to poetry. The artist depicted eight people, the most famous writers in the city. These are the writers V.M. Katanov, I.A. Ryzhov, poets V.P. Dronnikov and G.A. Popov, journalists Yu.A. Onoprienko and A.I. Lysenko, theater director and writer L.Yu. Moiseev, literary critic V.A. Gromov. Among them, the artist depicted himself in a light raincoat and cap. This is his favorite technique when working with group portraits. He follows the old masters who liked to leave their portraits among the heroes of the canvas. All the depicted are calm, people are standing under the cool, gentle sun by the river, a light breeze blows them slightly. Writers listen to poems read by their literary fellow.

Although the picture is called ‘Group portrait of the Oryol writers’, and the artist placed them in the foreground, giving each of them an unconditional portrait likeness, they are not dominant. The compositional center is a mighty oak, at which people have gathered, it carries the main message.
The depicted landscape does not have a specific topography, it is a collective image: the nature of the Oryol region, so familiar, dear. You will come across a similar corner in ‘hundreds of miles around’.

Autumn, the time of Indian summer. High bright blue autumn sky with light clouds, slightly tinted with pink by the sun, beloved birch trees, which can be found everywhere in the Oryol region, ‘crimson and gold’ of tree foliage. The grass in the foreground has already turned yellow, but late flowers are still blooming, pinkish, lilac, purple spots enliven the picture. The sun is already sinking, and therefore the shadows are long, dark blue. The birch grove on the other bank on the left and in the center is already in the shade and is given by the artist in a common gold massif, and the trees on the right illuminated by the sun are painted more clearly: individual thin trunks are visible, the foliage is green-golden and bright.

But the main point is the oak. Huge, beautiful, with its tip reaching into the sky, it spread its branches wide. Andrei Ilyich lovingly depicts each leaf, we feel how they tremble under a gentle soft wind.

The picture is full of allegories. The mighty oak is not only a reference to our Oryol compatriot Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, whose name is strongly connected in associations with beautiful descriptions of native nature. The oak reminds of the strong literary roots on which the Oryol literary culture stands, because Oryol is rightly called the third literary capital of Russia. This is also an image of a strong connection of times - the Oryol land has not become scarce in talents.