In 2015 Svyatoslav Ryabkin painted “Girl and two doggys” (50x90 cm). A little girl meets two mestizos in the snowy meadow in front of her house. They skip curiously around her. In the beginning it is important not to be surrounded by foundlings to avoid dangerous approaches. Dogs love running and rolling in the fresh snow until they get tired and you just need to make sure they don't eat the snow! Will this little girl become their new mistress?

The wide white mantle seems soft and it melts into the fixed sky. On the canvas the lines of the matter are circular almost to follow the boundary of the hill on which there are few houses with red roofs.

Cold colours predominate: the little girl's lilac coat and her turquoise boots (coordinated with her hat). Dear Readers, do you remember another Ryabkin’s painting with the snow as the main subject? Look at the whirlwind in the picture called “A man dances with a snowstorm” (2017) to immerse yourself in a new winter space. "Girl and two doggys" was exhibited in the elegant “Lui e lei” hairdressed and aestics in Mogliano Veneto (in Treviso, Italy) and in Spinea (near Venice) on the occasion of the art exhibition “La notte è breve” (2015).

The Ukrainian artist Ryabkin painted this beautiful oil on canvas after being inspired by the news that took place a few years earlier in his country. On the occasion of the 2012 European Football Championships, many fans would arrive in Ukraine from all over the world and a multitude of stray dogs would welcomed them. Unfortunately the problem of the strays is always existed, just think that in the center of Kiev about 12,000 of strays wandered in groups. Therefore the government has decided to kill many stray dogs so that they do not bother the tourists.

The artist wonders who does not feel sorry for these creatures, victims of unjustified violence by all means available (beatings, rifle shots, poisoning with rat poison or arsenic and death by asphyxiation after being buried still alive and then covered with concrete). For two years the Italian photojournalist Andrea Cisternino had testified to the dynamics of these phenomena, which occurred mainly at night away from the gaze of others.
Volunteers and animal rights activists would do everything to save them, welcoming the animals in suitable facilities such as kennels. Finally, the sterilization was declared the only mean scientifically valid by the World Health Organization.

Ryabkin tries to raise awareness on this theme of straying with his painting "Girls and two doggys" and he tells us that the mixed-breed dogs, resulting from the crossing of different breeds, are in general more long-lived and healthy than purebred ones.

This big painting (50x90 cm) is delicate and the attention of the observer focuses on the details, as the expressiveness of the girl's face and the light stripes of the fur of the dog on the right. The plain subject has got a strong visual impact, almost as if it was a photograph taken by an adult watching the scene. And still dealing with art, I remember the Steve McCurry’s "icons" in his photographic exhibition in Conegliano (a town near Treviso in Italy) until February 13, 2022. Mr. McCurry had the opportunity to follow the Mujahideen in Afghanistan at the time of the war against Russia.

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