Description:
When all the snow is gone that means Spring has arrived. The streets become the popular destination for the village youth, and there is no telling what can happen when they get together. This scene was inspired by a song that tells of these wonderful Spring days and evenings. It is sung in the first person and tells of how the singer is ready to go into the streets to sing and dance. A passionate line from the song states “I feel hot and cold all over,” which characterizes the transition from Winter to Spring perfectly. The singer joins the other young men and young ladies in the street as they gather for a night of revelry and excitement.
Victor Babkin of Palekh painted this composition. His master's touch came from many years of painting in the Palekh style and experimenting with other forms of painting like oil-on-canvas work and painting in the Kholui style(he used to work at the Kholui Factory for some years). Today he lives on the outskirts of Palekh amidst a beautiful landscape on a plot of land where chickens and cattle are kept. His connection with the earth and the seasons is remarkable, which clearly comes through in his art.
Egg-tempera paint is the main medium used to paint this composition. His palette is based on warm tones to convey the bright spirit of the Spring season. There are minor infusions of cool blues and green, but these are made to create emphasis through contrast. The architecture in relation to the landscape is depicted with skill and ease. It shows a balance and a linear structure that has a developed set of angles to show a dynamic world. By no means is this static, rather he couples this precision with an animated hodgepodge of characters. Each of them is painted to carry their own unique character traits that signal just how good this artist is. He limns gold and aluminum paint over the temperas to add an aesthetic flair to the scene.
The box is made out of paper-mache made in Palekh. Black lacquer covers the exterior and red lacquer covers the interior of the box; clear lacquer is added in layers that are polished to a gleaming finish. Gold and aluminum ornamentation frames the scene and wraps around the sides of the box. Both decorations are exquisitely rendered and create a perfect complement to the scene on the lid. The box has a hinge above the composition and rests on four carved feet. Upon completing the work on this piece the artist writes Palekh, 2002, the title, and signs his name along the bottom of the composition.
