Olga Ilyinichna Fattakhova was a superb landscape artist. She graduated from the evening classes section of the Mezhdurechensk School of Art. She both draws and paints. Her paintings cover a wide variety of different subjects, from the spring thaw in the outskirts of the Pearl of the Kuzbass to hikers following paths in the Altai mountains, surrounded by majestic snow-covered peaks. Talking about where she ideas for a new painting, she says: ‘Inspiration may come from a ray of the sun’ or from ‘the sense of excitement that we experience when we see a brook in spring or a breathtakingly beautiful sunrise’.  

In her painting Spring, the artist depicts the reawakening of nature in Siberia after its winter hibernation. In the foreground we see a tall blossoming willow tree. In the middle ground there is a wide river reflecting the sky with snow-white clouds and the rocky bank of with melting snow Spring has already made its appearance, and little by little is wresting the land from winter’s grasp. Behind the river there is a line of trees, their tender leaves growing a deeper green day by day. Blue in the distance, the hills contrast with the pale sky.

All the details come together to convey the feeling of a spring landscape. The viewer’s attention is drawn to the distant horizon, full of air and light. The painting is full of bright, warm, living colors, and conveys a sense of the marvelous beauty of nature in Mountain Shoria. Vibrant with poetry, the painting fills the viewer with a sense of harmony and calm.

The region depicted in this painting has long been inhabited by the Shorians, or Kuznetsk Tatars. In the past, the Shorian people considered that the year began with the arrival of spring. Chyl-Pazhi, the Shorian New Year, is traditionally celebrated at the time of the spring equinox. Literally, Chyl-Pazhi means ‘head of the year’. It was said that the first person to see the rays of the sun on the day of the spring equinox would enjoy a ‘double measure of happiness’.

In Mountain Shoria spring is out of step with the calendar, and only begins in April. Spring here is particularly unpredictable: snowfalls can be followed by warm weather, and the warm spell interrupted by frosts or storms with torrential rain. But in Western Siberia the reawakening of the land after winter is one of Nature’s most beautiful phenomena — and Olga Fattakhova has captured this moment on canvas superbly.