Show all images on one page	#001154 Title: Landscape with birches Artist: Chikvasov Size: 15.5x12x5 Size (inches): 6x5x2 Price : $150 SOLD!

This beautiful landscape was painted by Chikvasov from Fedoskino. The scene is idyllic and peaceful. It's early morning. The rising sun lightens up the marshy bank of a forest lake with its golden rays. Golden sunlight gradually covers the clear blue sky, and floods everything around with its golden radiance. The mirror-like surface of the lake that reflects the sky, and the vapoury meadow shine with gold. Some birds are scattered in the sky, and two ducks fly up over the meadow. The forest and the meadow in the background are covered with dense fog.
The landscape is mostly painted in different shades of green against the golden background. The details show an expansive landscape that is full of diverse plant-life. To give the illusion of lush grass, and thick growth in the forest, Karapaev uses a technique used by watercolor artists that uses minute variations in solid areas of paint so the land and trees look very fertile. The background is painted vaguely; it is a trick artists use to create depth through perspectives. Trees, firs and bushes in the background are almost invisible under the screen of fog. We may see only their outlines, whereas different plants, trees and bushes in the foreground are painted distinctly. Detail in the trees and the foliage makes the scene more complex than it looks, since it was so masterfully rendered on this paper-mache box. The composition is painted over a thin layer of aluminum powder to create luminescence of the sunlight and give depth to the scene. Aluminum powder is mixed with oil paints and in some areas it is gold, while in other areas it can be greenish, bluish, brownish and grey.
The box is constructed from paper-mache. Black lacquer is used to paint the exterior of the box while red lacquer completes the interior of the work. The box has a hinge from the top of the composition and rests on a flat bottom. The box is signed with the artist's name, village and year (1978). The box is in excellent condition!