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Here are sketches from the three week long Russia trip. The Indo- Russian friendship during the cold war introduced me to The USSR. The country with funny mirrored letters. We grew up reading books from MIR publication, from the detailed discription of Russian life and culture in Maxim Gorky's "Childhood" , to the introductiuon to the Space programme through "Sputnik" Magazine. Apart from looking for some signs of the communist past and the love for Art from the Soviet era I didn't have much of a plan and it was nice to let it unfiold itself in the three weeks I spent there.
The wait to see the onion shaped domes is over, they are all over the place, I sketched my first set at "the assumption cathedral" The kremlin has red walls with towers at regular intervals and houses several cathedrals, museums, towers, gardens and palaces. Welcome to moscow!
Nothing can prepare you for this bizzare mix of colours and forms, one has to see it in reality to believe how the principals of rhythm, harmony, contrast, balance can be simply thrown out of the window. I haven't picked up the courage to paint this .
The surreal train ride from Mosciow to Vladimer. There were people selling stuff like on Indian trains but the difference was that they were equipped with headseats with microphone, the icing on the cake was when this guy arrived with a proper microphone and a boombox and started singing, it was like a concert in the train, nobody except me was tryng hard not to laugh.
The pretty little town of Suzdal, a stream flows through the town and roughly 12000 people live here.
This UNESCO world heritage site is like an illustration from a fairytale book. The blue onion shaped domes with stars on them set on top of white plastered walls
Probably the worst decision to go for local wine tasting, the stuff was like some sugar syrup and gave me a bad stocmach.
The churches remind me of the childrens book from Mir publication which were
so much a part of our childhood.
There was a three hour halt at a place called Ivanovo, I decided to sketch some of
the Babushkas(grandmothers) in their laud printed dresses waiting at the bustop.
So far all the taxi rides have been with Consmonauts, the guy didn't speak any
English and kept elboying me if he wanted to say something and drove like a
madman.
The old church and the bell tower seen from the river. The fishing rides in the
boat were a pleasant surprise.
Got invited to this party by teh river by some locals, fish soup, the legendary car "lada" and
vodka shots of course!People in this part of the world are simply wonderful.
This Cottage calle dthe Fishermans hut was right by the lake, with no other buildings or
structures around. This indeed was special!
The excursion was unlike anything that I'm used to, especially with the tour guide dressed
up like she was off to a shiopping mall. The boat ride was the highlight of the excursion with
big guy Archie asking us to join him and his collegues on his boat.
The evening at the tranquil Lake Lakshmo, this definately was a welcome
change from the normal touristy places.
