Valery Yakovlevich Verenyov painted his early works with oil paints; later, however, he discovered pastel and, coming to appreciate the wide application prospect of this material, began to work with it exclusively.

Artists have long been striving to get pure paints, free from any adhesives. To make pastels, coloring pigments are milled and then used to form pastel sticks with the addition of a minimum amount of water (for dry pastels), oil or wax.

Pastel is equally applicable in both painting and graphics. In painting, multicolored small strokes are arranged side by side, imitating strokes or dots of color used in pointillism, or blended with fingers or using a soft brush. In graphics, the outlines are drawn in light strokes by the tip of a sharpened chalk and then highlighted with a flexible contour line, using the pictorial space of the paper sheet as another color accent.

In the late 1980s, Valery Verenyov came to the village of Novaya Tambovka to paint portraits of builders, who were going to build a nitrogen fertilizer plant and the city of Bonivur on those lands. The construction was subsequently frozen, yet the artist still decided to stay in the new place. Years later, he noted, “Here, both the air and the lighting are different. The colors… are brighter than in the city.” Valery Verenyov dedicated a lot of his landscapes to the area of Novaya Tambovka.

The painting “Dural in the Morning” is a great example of the wide range of pastel painting. The image of the sky — the favorite landscape motif of Verenyov — is the first thing to notice. It is the sky that occupies the prominent space on the canvas. Soft strokes make the picture look wholesome and airy at the same time. The lemon-orange hues hint at the sunrise coming. Its first rays are just beginning to shine through the dusk: the foreground and background of the painting are immersed in shadow, and only the center is illuminated. The clouds swirling over the river add a certain romantic touch to the whole image.

Pastel painting is also consonant with Valery Verenyov’s state of spirit, his sensitive and sentimental nature.

Полное наименование: Dural in the Morning
Автор: Valery Yakovlevich Verenyov
Дата создания: 2009
Техника: cardboard, pastel
Место создания: Russia
Размеры: 42,5×60 cm

Dmitry Andreyevich Gutov came to Komsomolsk-on-Amur at the age of seven: his family moved there from the village of Travnoye in the Novosibirsk region. Since childhood, the future artist watched his mother and sisters weave lace and admired the icons of his Old-Believer grandmother.

He graduated from school right when the Great Patriotic War started, and the yesterday’s graduate got a job as an artist at a carpet factory. In 1944, he entered a nautical school in Nikolayevsk-on-Amur, then he went to study in Kyiv. There, Gutov graduated from an art school (1946–1949) and the State Art Institute. He would always remember his professors with gratitude.

In 1954, Dmitry Gutov returned to the Russian Far East in search of material for his graduation project — a historical and ethnographic painting “For Debts”.

His natural propensity to compete helped him earn respect among the Nanai natives: the young artist challenged local hunters and unexpectedly won a shooting competition. Later, he thoroughly studied the local customs and created many bright, colorful images.

Judging by the bright expensive fabric of the robe and eye-catching jewelry, the sitter for the painting “Nanai Bride” comes from a wealthy family. The woman’s gaze is directed downward, not at the viewer and not even at the wedding bouquet in her hands; the artist managed to masterfully convey her detached and slightly sad state of mind and her reflection as to what life would be like in her new family.

The full cycle of matchmaking and marriage ceremonies of the Nanai people could last up to several years. Sometimes, future newlyweds became engaged in their infancy; also, a groom’s family could take a four-to-six-year-old girl and bring her up in the traditions of their family until the marriageable age of 16–17. A widowed man could marry the younger sister of his deceased wife. The age difference, even up to 25 years, and the fact which of the two was older did not matter.

Most often, the story of a marriage began with the choice of a bride for the grownup son and the “medeliku” rite when the bride’s parents were asked for their blessing. Agreeing right away was considered inappropriate, and the consultations between the families lasted for about a week, with the last word reserved for the bride’s mother. At the second meeting called “engsi”, the bride price was negotiated; the third meeting, “degbeliku”, implied presenting the bride’s dowry and discussing her move to the new home. Only after that came the wedding feast called “sarin” with various competitions, rites and sacrifices, believed to bring children, wealth and perseverance in overcoming difficulties.

Полное наименование: Nanai Bride
Автор: Dmitry Andreyevich Gutov
Дата создания: before 1973
Техника: canvas, oil
Место создания: the USSR
Размеры: 49×29,5 cm