About the author
The work of the artist and designer Ekaterina Kukhareva is diverse. She works with different materials, creating paintings on canvas, paper, from colored sheep's wool, but her favorite technique is painting on boards. She got interested in this material back in the late 1990s.
It all started prosaically - from limited funds for the purchase of art materials during his student years.
Studying at the Faculty of Applied Arts of the Moscow Textile Academy. A. N. Kosygina, which she graduated with honors, Ekaterina painted mainly in tempera and watercolors, and began to work in oils in her free time. The first oil paints went to Catherine from her mother, who had artistic abilities, but was not professionally engaged in painting.
The aspiring artist worked in her parents' country house, which had not yet been completed. Therefore, there were a lot of scraps of boards and plywood, which Catherine first used as palettes, but then one day she decided that she did not want to spend the family's money on canvas and primed cardboard. "Why, when there are so many free boards around that no one needs anymore?" - says the author. This is how it all started.
The artist experimented with wood and after a few years came to the author's technique, which consists in a certain sequence of stages of work so that the picture looks vintage, worn, but at the same time the paint and varnish were well fixed. Over time, Ekaterina moved from small-format works to larger ones. The artist uses pine, birch, eucalyptus, ash and other species that he can find in his work.
But the most important thing that distinguishes Catherine's work from the work of other artists who write on blackboards is that she uses such a psychological phenomenon as pareidolia at the beginning of her work. Pareidolia is a kind of visual illusion, when the details of inanimate objects are transformed in our imagination into images of people, animals, figures, landscapes. In the drawing of wallpaper, on a cut of stone or wood, in the form of clouds or rocks, in the details of buildings or cars - everywhere you can see how the manifestation of pareidolia is different faces and figures. This feature of our visual perception is often used by street artists, inscribing their characters in the urban environment, using fragments of buildings and details of engineering structures as part of their image, while filling it with meaning.
When Catherine starts work, she first prepares the board: she polishes, impregnates with special compounds, and then decides on which side of the board she will work.
The artist's works are often symbolic and not always written from life. One of the characteristic techniques in Ekaterina Kukhareva's painting is to leave a part of the board not covered with paint or wipe it down to the bottom layer of paint or to the tree itself. This gives the work a special charm.
Among the artist's paintings there are also two-sided works, which makes them especially interesting. Also, one of the features of the artist's work is that she often writes on the sides of the board. Her paintings do not need to be framed; they can not only be mounted on the wall, but also placed on shelves and furniture.
“Those who revolutionized art are certainly great people. Many of them are my compatriots, famous all over the world, of which I am especially proud. I do not pretend to “say a new word in art”, but I think that my direction is interesting because each work is unique and inimitable, because the soul of this tree speaks in it. One hundred different artists can paint on a standard format canvas. Then you can make copies of these pictures. And it is impossible to copy my paintings, since the second such board simply no longer exists in nature. The wood base itself is unique. Canvas is not a unique basis, ”concludes Ekaterina.
Planks were one of the earliest foundations for artists until the spread of free-spanning canvas in the 17th century. But that was exactly the foundation. The boards were carefully selected so that there were no defects, cracks, knots. For Catherine, the presence of cracks, holes, traces of bark beetle, scratches on the boards is valuable. This is the real, true story of the tree. In addition, the tree has its own special smell, energy, it is pleasant to touch it. It is warm, which cannot be said about the canvas. Therefore, the artist's paintings are perceived best when you take them in your hands.
Currently, the artist continues to experiment with wood and other materials. There are plans for projects in the field of integral art.
"I have always liked the forests of Russia," - Ekaterina admitted, - " so I prefer wood as a material and planks as a woodworking product. Slabs retain the warmth, soul and energy of a living tree. Look at my works and you will see what came out of our dialogue with them".
The painting was done on a wooden plank with oil paints in the author's technique and varnished for artwork. The plank has an irregular shape. Natural sections of knots and the texture of natural wood suggested the plot of the picture. The image is located not only on the front side of the wooden plank, but also on the sides. The picture is suitable for decorating a living room, hall or bedroom. It fits in narrow partitions or columns.
Dimensions, cm 99/18.5/25
Weight, kg 2.3
Price:
30 000,00 ₽/496,24 $/486,19 €/335,1 ¥
I think it will be interesting for you to discuss this picture with your children and even come up with a whole story about a colt and his mother. In this work, there is tenderness, kindness, and peace - all that should be in every home. The painting was done on a wooden plank with oil paints in the author's technique and varnished for artwork. Natural sections of knots and the texture of natural wood suggested the plot of the picture. The wooden plank has an irregular shape. The picture is artificially aged and looks worn.The image is on the sides of the wooden plank. The picture is suitable for decorating a living room, hall, bedroom, children's room.
Dimensions, cm 33.5/23/2.5
Weight, kg 1
Price:
11 200,00 ₽/185,26 $/181,51 €/125,1 ¥
You don't often come across boards with such an interesting natural pattern. In this work, I portrayed a married couple with a child in their arms. They seemed to have grown together, forming a single whole, as it should be in a strong family. The painting was done on a wooden plank with oil paints in the author's technique and varnished for artwork. The plank has an irregular shape. Natural sections of knots and the texture of natural wood suggested the plot of the picture. It depicts the figures of a man and a woman with a baby in her arms. The picture is suitable for decorating a living room, hall, children's room or bedroom.
Dimensions, cm 36/19/2.5
Weight, kg 0.9
Price:
9 700,00 ₽/160,45 $/157,2 €/108,35 ¥
This is one of my first works where I experimented with color and geometric patterns using the silhouette of a lily. The stripes follow the natural pattern on the board. The painting was done on a wooden plank with oil paints in the author's technique and varnished for artwork. Natural sections of knots and the texture of natural wood suggested the plot of the picture. The wooden plank has an irregular shape. The picture is artificially aged and looks worn. The picture is suitable for the decoration of the living room, hall, bedroom and any other interior that has strips in the decor.
Dimensions, cm 43/22/2.5
Weight, kg 1.5
Price:
9 500,00 ₽/157,14 $/153,96 €/106,12 ¥
The painting was done on a wooden plank with oil paints in the author's technique and varnished for artwork. Natural sections of knots and the texture of natural wood suggested the plot of the picture. The plank has an irregular shape. The image is located not only on the front side of the wooden plank, but also on the sides.The picture is suitable for decorating a living room, hall or bedroom.
Dimensions, cm 37/27/3
Weight, kg 1
Price:
17 500,00 ₽/289,48 $/283,61 €/195,48 ¥
When I saw this board, I immediately had the image of a lop-eared dog. I didn't think twice. So there was this cute Dachshund with an almost human look. Despite the fact that a little cartoon image, I will not say that this picture is suitable only for children. Dog lovers, especially dachshund, as well as hunters can decorate their interiors with this photo. The painting was done on a wooden plank with oil paints in the author's technique and varnished for artwork. Natural sections of knots and the texture of natural wood suggested the plot of the picture. The wooden plank has an irregular shape. The picture is artificially aged and looks worn.The image is on the sides of the wooden plank. The picture is suitable for decorating a living room, hall, bedroom, children's room.
Dimensions, cm 37/29/2.8
Weight, kg 1.3
Price:
27 800,00 ₽/459,85 $/450,54 €/310,53 ¥
Admit it, your first thought was about Bambi? However, the deer is not just a beautiful animal. It is an ancient symbol-a symbol of rebirth and renewal, strength and nobility, courage and purity, piety and piety — a symbol of the human soul. To have such a picture at home is very good for all people and especially for those who have a deer as a totem animal. The painting was done on a wooden plank with oil paints in the author's technique and varnished for artwork. Natural sections of knots and the texture of natural wood suggested the plot of the picture. The wooden plank has an irregular shape. The picture is artificially aged and looks worn.The image is on the sides of the wooden plank. The picture is suitable for decorating a living room, hall, bedroom, children's room.
Dimensions, cm 21.5/18.5/2
Weight, kg 0.35
Price:
5 600,00 ₽/92,63 $/90,76 €/62,55 ¥
This work, which is close to the naivety of the plot and execution to the manner of primitivism, impresses with its simplicity. We see only fragments of a female figure, fence and grass, but this is enough to feel the warmth and serenity of a summer day in the village. The painting was done on a wooden plank with oil paints in the author's technique and varnished for artwork. Branch cut and the texture of natural wood suggested the plot of the picture. The wooden plank has an irregular shape. The picture is artificially aged and looks worn.The image is on the sides of the wooden plank. The picture is suitable for decorating a living room, hall, bedroom.
Dimensions, cm 38/19.5/2.5
Weight, kg 0.7
Price:
8 400,00 ₽/138,95 $/136,13 €/93,83 ¥