This well established Fediskino artist has made a name for herself with her unique style and distinctive color palette. She already has several original compositions in Fedoskino Museum of Lacquer Miniatures, and has three pieces represented in The Art of Russian Fedoskino Lacquer Miniature Catalogue ( Published by N.P. Vector): a box and a casket entitled "The Walk" and another casket entitled "The Stroll". One of her boxes entitled, " Meeting the Guest" (1990) is also featured in Masterpieces of Russian Folk Art: Lacquer Miniatures by N. Krestovskaya ( Interbook publishers. Moscow, 1995: pg.108).
Two pieces, entitled "Summer Sledges" (1990) "Coming after the Bride" (1990) are featured in Nekrasova M. Z., 1994. FEDOSKINO RUSSIAN PALEKH LACQUER MSTERA MINIATURES KHOLUI ALBUM-ANTHOLOGY
"Novosti". ISBN 5-86884-029-1 on page 68.
Her distinctive style comes from combining bright, jewel tone colors of reds, blues, greens, aqua, and purple in one composition. The themes of her boxes usually depict scenes of happy people dressed in colorful, richly ornate folk costumes. Wagner makes her characters glow by applying gold leaf with a lacquer finish before painting over it with a combination of oil paint and crushed-mother-of -pearl. Wagner's figures are always sketched with amazing detail and correct proportions. One can always recognize a Wagner character by their large expressive eyes and cherry drop mouth, which make them so appealing to look at. Her characters have a look of peace and contentment, which we all aspire to achieve, and perhaps this could explain the popularity of her pieces
Maria Wagner and her lacquerbox
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