Academies of Decorative Painting

I love to paint and I love to paint in the Palekh style!

I was first introduced to the art of Palekh painting several years ago when Tanya and Boris

Karmardin came to Montreal in 2005, sponsored by Tricia Joiner. Recently, I have been fortunate enough to be able to ta

ke lessons from their daughter who has moved to Montreal from Russia

and graduated first in her class fro the

Palekh School of Art.

With the first class I took, I was captured by the fantasy and fun in the painting.

As early as the 15th century, Palekh was one of the centers for Icon painting.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, it became the most famous center of Icon painting in the world. With the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, Icon painting naturally declined. The Palekh painters tried their hands at painting other things - wooden

toys, dishes, utensils etc. but their favorite was small papier mache boxes that

eventually became the world renown lacquered miniatures.

Because Palekh is a  relatively small village located 250 miles north of Moscow and surrounded by terri

ble roads, the Palekh painters were seldom visited and kept the traditions of Icon painting. Ivan Golikov can be credited with the beginnings of the Palekh miniatures.

He was so enamored by the boxes he saw on a visit to the Kustar Museum in 1921, that he started painting them using egg tempera and the same techniques used in Icon painting. He started the Palekh Art of Ancient Painting in 1924 and this became an integral part of the Soviet Applied Arts four year program.

Originally, the boxes were painted only

for Soviet citizens. They depicted scenes from fairy tales, legends, rural life, Soviet leaders and heroes. From 1930 to 1960 there were many debates and articles on the correct methods, styles, content and ch

aracteristics of painting in the Palekh style. Today, the same qualities may be seen in the boxes.

They embody an inherent feeling of joy and life. They are beautiful in proportion and elegant in form. they are accurate in detail with a bit of whimsy added. The decorative landscapes and architecture help fill the painting. There is always gold decoration, either as a highlight or ornamentation.

The Palekh Art College was founded in 1935 and you have to be graduate in order to sign your name on your boxes. The school graduates only five students per year and from what I can gather from conversations, is that the standards are very strict.  All students who attend the Palekh Art College are taught by copying the masters and at the same time they must create their own interpretation. Since Perestroika, there has been more freedom to create.

The division of labour involved in the the miniature boxes fascinates me. The boxes are made on one factory; they are painted black on the outside and crimson on the inside in another factory; they are lacquered with several coats of lacquer in another factory; they are painted by the artists; the gold is burnished with a wolf’s tooth, then they are lacquered again in a factory and the last coating is put on only by women because they can rub on the lacquer with their soft hands.  If you ask an artist how to do the lacquer, they do not know because that is not their job.

The most popular motif is Zhar Ptitsa  (the Firebird). It represents beauty, eternal youth and happiness.

Palekh itself is now a village of about 7,000 and of those, 200 -300 are active painters. With the advent of secular communication, the youth are more and more influenced by other countries and other occupations. It is a fear that the number of artists will decline significantly in a few years. It has become more and more difficult to make a living and bring up a family doing  either Icon painting or miniature painting.

There is so much more to say but I will be content to show you how a picture is worth a thousand words.

Some of these I have painted and others are from the Palekh artists.