"The picture "Recollection about travelling to Russia 1" (60 x 45cm) is Svyatoslav Ryabkin artist's remembrance. The image deals with the courage of a boy in having faced a bear and saved his beloved. In Russia you can meet a lot of big and hungry bears everywhere, did you know dear Readers?


It is autumn and colours are bright: trees have got a yellowed hair and the blue sky has got golden reflections. These happy colours convey the same happiness of two young people’s because they have just escaped the danger and returned to their quiet everyday life.


Look at the house in the middle of the canvas. It dominates the scene. Its elongated and deformed shape is just like that the houses in "Night music", another his beautiful picture. The artist often does not respect the proportions: houses have narrow bases that widen upwards. “Night music” is set at night and seems to be the next scene of the picture "Recollection about travelling to Russia 1". In the evening the young man devotes a beautiful serenade to her beloved.


In this picture there are four characters who tell us a story. Can you find them, dear Readers? Look well!

The boy and the girl are from behind in evidence at the bottom. He has got dark clothes and black hair and he is in contrast with the blonde and white dressed girl. She is the typical woman depicted by the artist, she is his muse and the emblem of femininity and grace. She is perfectly celebrated in "Gold hair", another Ryabkin’s famous picture. But here, she wears red shoes that remind me of those worn by Dorothy in the movie "The Wizard of Oz”. Have you ever seen it? Dorothy said: "There's no place like home" and it is linked to this house in a dominant position. Two young people are like two lovers embraced among white houses with red roofs in "Lovers of the city", another beautiful picture of the artist. Which do you prefer among these, dear Readers? Write to us!


The third figure is at the bottom left. Can you see the shape of a man in the grass? His legs are two full beige colour brushstrokes that end in fuzzy brown shoes in the green lawn. Going up, a light blue spot is his sweater and two little pink spots on the right and on the left are his hands. Finally, a violet stake along the driveway is his hat. Not everyone can see it: he is well hidden! Also he is from behind like two young people but he is very shaded! So he represents all those who died after the terrible experience against bears. Note that all three people are on the lawn and not on the road as if all they have just shared a difficult adventure full of uncertainties like when you walk on the high grass and you do not know where you put your feet!


The artist Ryabkin often uses the technique of irregular brushstrokes, a quick and decisive stroke leaving lumps of not spread colour. He uses the tip of the brush handle to "scratch" the colour. The whole picture, excluding houses, reveals this technique.


The last character is a simple white line that widens in a dot to form its head and stretches towards the middle of the picture as a raised arm. Can you see it? He is in front of the first house on the right of the canvas. No doubt it is a ghost that says hallo. It represents the "recollection" of the moment with the bear. Its candor is in contrast with the young dark man: they are the antipodes like life and death and past and future.

Go, young man! Go back to your home and take back your life! This picture is beautiful because it conveys a great feeling of live, hope and revenge on the evil.


The picture "Recollection about travelling to Russia 1" was painted in 2014 and now it is exhibited in Mogliano Veneto (Treviso, Italy) at "Lui e lei" man and woman hairdresser and aesthetics salon.