The Primorye Arts and Crafts Museum houses several works created by the artist Alla Semakova. All of them feature life in Pomor villages. Semakova painted boats, sheds, ‘banyas’ (Russian saunas), and some logs for construction works on the White Sea coast.
The artist painted ‘Preparing for the Fishing Season’ in 1985, after a trip to Lopshenga village. The village is located on the so-called Summer Coast of the White Sea, where the fishermen come in summer.
The fishing season usually starts at the end of August. The Pomor people had a long tradition of careful preparations for this season. They repaired fishing equipment, built new boats, pulled the old ones out of the water, dried them thoroughly, caulked and tarred anew. The wood was treated with birch tar: it protected from destruction and pests and mitigated the marine salt impact on the vessel’s exterior surface.
A traditional fishing boat — a “karbass” — is depicted in the foreground of the “Preparing for the Fishing Season”. This term described several types of vessels of different shapes and sizes. Each sailor built his boat using his drawings, but everyone used the same material — spruce or pine wood. These trees were more common on the outskirts of Arkhangelsk than broadleaved ones and they were considered more durable and hard. The boat parts were coupled with wooden nails or long juniper or spruce roots, fresh shoots of willows or birches. After these roots or shoots dried, they pulled the boards together tightly, perfectly fixing the boat parts. The Russian name of these small fishing boats “vichanki” came from this material called “vitsa” in Russian.
The artist painted ‘Preparing for the Fishing Season’ in 1985, after a trip to Lopshenga village. The village is located on the so-called Summer Coast of the White Sea, where the fishermen come in summer.
The fishing season usually starts at the end of August. The Pomor people had a long tradition of careful preparations for this season. They repaired fishing equipment, built new boats, pulled the old ones out of the water, dried them thoroughly, caulked and tarred anew. The wood was treated with birch tar: it protected from destruction and pests and mitigated the marine salt impact on the vessel’s exterior surface.
A traditional fishing boat — a “karbass” — is depicted in the foreground of the “Preparing for the Fishing Season”. This term described several types of vessels of different shapes and sizes. Each sailor built his boat using his drawings, but everyone used the same material — spruce or pine wood. These trees were more common on the outskirts of Arkhangelsk than broadleaved ones and they were considered more durable and hard. The boat parts were coupled with wooden nails or long juniper or spruce roots, fresh shoots of willows or birches. After these roots or shoots dried, they pulled the boards together tightly, perfectly fixing the boat parts. The Russian name of these small fishing boats “vichanki” came from this material called “vitsa” in Russian.
