Sergei and Alexei Tkachyov finished ‘Summer’ in 1970. It depicts three carefree girls sitting on a village fence. A village fence is the fence that marks the village’s boundary. Two of the friends sit with their backs to the viewer and are gazing upon the flowering field. The third girl is looking fondly directly ahead. This is the artists’ depiction of Elena Tkachyova, Aleksei’s daughter. Both the daisies in their hands and the flower wreaths on their heads makes it clear that the girls are learning how to weave floral decorations.

In the painting, the artists are convey the warmth and sense of calm of a summer’s day. They emphasize the pace of rural life: two girls have kicked off their shoes and are perched on the fence barefoot; a white butterfly is sitting happily on the post.

The artists intentionally opted for a high horizontal line in the composition. As a rule, this technique is used for horizonless steppes and expansive forests in order to depict the depth of the landscape. This technique has allowed the artists to make the foreground even more prominent. It seems as if they are inviting the viewer to pay even more attention to the girls.

The artists worked on ‘Summer’ in their workshop in the village of Novoye Kotchishche. This is where Alexei Tkachyov met his future wife. She came there to stay with relatives when studying at the institute, whilst Alexei came for the ‘Akademichka’ (the Union of Artists’ creative headquarters). They met at a dance. For their daughter, Elena Tkachyova, this region was home. She spent all of her summer holidays there from a young age

The Tkachyov brothers have said that it was always easy to be creative in this region, as the nature and people helped them to bring their creative thoughts into being.