Russia, the incredible trip

15 artists invited by the ministry of culture in Moscow as part of a european cultural project. The trip comprised of visits in Moscow & St Petersburg, culminating with each participant painting an image representing "The image of Russia" for a collective show. Realistically, we had only 3 days to resolve a painting from scratch, after having been dragged around different places to "experience" Russia. So not much hope to get anything decent finished. But to see a selection of Russian old masters, see my other russian blog.

Memorial monument to Mikhail Sholokhov, Russian writer. Sculpted by Alexander Rukavishnikov. More effective when the fountain is switched on.

Moscow from Hotel Ukraine

painting in the studio, alongside Amaya GURPIDE

painting in the studio, alongside Arantza MARTINEZ

Exhibition "The image of Russia"

Exhibition "The image of Russia" From left to right. Amaya GURPIDE, Toby WRIGHT, Arantza MARTINEZ

My contribution to the show, now in the Moscow culture ministry collection. Oil on canvas, 150 x 80cm.

Visit of an Art Academy, on the outskirts of Moscow. Extensive video presenting the school in Russian here.

We were given a tour of the huge building. The director, here on the right, is Sergey Andriaka, apparently the greatest watercolourist of Russia. What follows are various rooms we managed to get access to, highlighting the various courses going on.

drapery classroom

watercolour still life classroom

instructions on drawing and modelling an egg

some of us escaped the "official" guided tour to see some real classes going on. after searching through 5 floors and trying about a hundred doors, we found the anatomy class.

Anatomy class

The mother of all model-rooms?

A glass dome, light everywhere. There were no draperies to direct the light, but it may have been work-in-progress.

Cast deliveries. Busts, columns, all sorts.

Moscow Philharmonic orchestra on the last night