L.V. Orlova, "Khokhloma painting"

Here are the main techniques of Khokhloma painting. The material is presented according to the principle from simple to complex, from studying the basic elements of Khokhloma painting and repetition exercises, to tasks for improvisation and painting three-dimensional images.

To get started you need to have:
1) gouache paints of yellow, red, green and black colors;
2) squirrel brushes No. 2 and No. 3;
3) a jar of water;
4) a soft cloth to remove excess paint from the brush;
5) a piece of white thick paper or a white small plate without patterns, which will serve as a palette.

Exercise 1. Pattern "grass"

Learning to draw the simplest elements of a grass ornament. Perform exercises to repeat the main distinctive elements of the grass pattern. In Khokhloma painting, “grass” is an ornament made in separate rhythmically arranged strokes.
All elements of the grass ornament are drawn immediately with a brush, without applying a preliminary drawing with a pencil, while holding the brush with three fingers perpendicular to the surface of the sheet.

The exercise includes the main elements of "weed":
"Pigtails" - the simplest element of the pattern. It is performed with a slight movement of the brush tip from top to bottom.
"Blade of grass" - These are strokes with a slight smooth thickening.
"Droplets" - draw by applying the brush to the paper.
"Antennae" - are drawn in the form of a continuous line of the same thickness, twisted into a spiral.
"Curls" - are performed with a slight pressure in the middle of the element.
"Bush" is the most complex element of "grass". It consists of symmetrically arranged simpler elements - sedges, blades of grass, droplets, tendrils and curls.

Exercise 2

In all tasks for improvisation, first they consider the painting made by the master, then they independently paint the drawing of the product.
Consider a cup with a herbal pattern, made by a craftsman. The festive and solemn color of the painting is given by a combination of gold, red and black colors. Invent and decorate the spoon yourself with elements of herbal ornament, using two colors - black and red.

Exercise 3. Grass ornament

The purpose of the exercise is to gradually, using the method from simple to complex, learn to draw a complex herbal ornament, using all previously studied elements.
First practice in pointing the leading stem of the "kriul". The main element of the "kriul" - "curl", has the same length and twists alternately up and down. Then the pattern is complicated by the addition of red and black "bushes".

Exercise 4. Painting a cup

When considering a salt shaker with a herbal pattern, pay attention to the rhythmic alternation of ornamental elements. The smooth flow of the leading line - "kriula" emphasizes the rounded shape of the product, red and black colors give the painting a solemn and festive sound.
Decorate the cup with herbal ornaments by leading the leading stem yourself and using the elements of herbal ornament previously studied.

Exercise 4

In the Khokhloma pattern "leaves", in addition to red and black, green and yellow are also used.

Exercise 6. Painting a napkin holder

Considering the work of the master, pay attention to the location of the branch with autumn leaves. The free arrangement of leaves, herbs emphasizes the shape of the product, gives lightness and splendor to the pattern.
Improvise, create your own composition, apply the Khokhloma color palette: red, green, black and yellow.

Exercise 7

Learn to draw patterns with a brush and poke seal. A poke is made of paper, for this a strip of paper is folded into a tight tube.
The berries of lingonberry, currant and mountain ash are drawn with a poke seal.
Gooseberries, strawberries and raspberries are drawn with a brush. On the dried paint, the berries are "lived up" in yellow.

Exercise 8

Paint the product with a brush and a poke seal, using "lightening" and other painting techniques.

Exercise 9. Ornament with "berries" and "leaves"

Practice drawing a Khokhloma ornament using the previously studied elements, completing the ornamental strip according to the model.

Exercise 10

Considering a vase painted with a masturist, pay attention to the correspondence between the pattern and the shape of the object. A branch of ripe berries wraps around the surface of the product, creating a continuous strip of ornament.
Invent and paint a vase on your own, paying attention to the pattern and shape of the object.

Exercise 11

This is the final entry level exercise. In this exercise, use everything you have learned so far. Decorate the red and yellow petals and flowers yourself with a variety of Khokhloma patterns. Then these blanks can be cut out and made into an appliqué in the form of a colorful Khokhloma bouquet. The bouquet will be more beautiful and lush if the children complement it with light sprigs of grass.
If you want to make a large bouquet, you can cut similar blanks from colored, yellow or red paper and then decorate them to your liking.

Collective work. "Khokhloma bouquet"

As a final task, you can create a team work with the participation of several people. To do this, each participant prepares several petals from colored paper in yellow or red and paints them. Then a colorful Khokhloma bouquet is glued on a large sheet of drawing paper, in which there is a place for each participant to work. The bouquet can be decorated with tendrils and bushes. Such collective work will serve as a good decoration.
From such blanks, you can glue not only a bouquet, but also a garland, an ornament, an ornamental frame, etc.

Khokhloma painting, Russian folk art craft. Originated in the second half of the 17th century. on the territory of the modern Koverninsky district of the Gorky region; The trade name was given to the trade. Khokhloma of the same region - the center of distribution of products of Khokhloma painting in the 18th - early 20th centuries. Khokhloma painting is characterized by the original technique of painting wood in a golden color without the use of gold. Objects carved from wood (mainly dishes) were primed with a solution of clay, raw linseed oil and tin powder (in modern products - aluminum), on the layer of which a floral pattern was made in a free brush style of painting, then covered with linseed oil varnish (now - synthetic ) and hardened at high temperature in a furnace. For the color of Khokhloma painting, a combination of red and black with gold is typical. The types of painting are common - “horse” (red and black on a golden background) and “under the background” (golden silhouette pattern on a colored background).

According to archaeological excavations, in the Volga region they were engaged in the manufacture of wooden utensils. Wood was the most convenient and affordable material for creating household items. Nimble shuttles - "boots" were hollowed out of tree trunks, figured ladles were cut out, decorating their handles with carved silhouettes of horses, and various forms of dishes were carved.

Everyone who settled in these places had to do crafts. The lands here were infertile, there was not enough harvest until spring. Only forest wealth and nimble hands saved from hunger and want. The proximity of the great Volga route contributed to the fact that wooden utensils were made here early for sale.

However, the first utensil crafts of the Trans-Volga region did not differ in any way from the many similar industries that developed on the territory of our country. As in other areas, local craftsmen covered items with linseed oil or drying oil made from it. This gave strength to wooden utensils, it became more beautiful. This method of varnishing the surface of a tree is not forgotten even now. Until recently, it was used in the production of the cheapest cups and salt shakers, which served as everyday household items.

When did the art of golden Khokhloma appear? Probably, the masters of the Trans-Volga region began to paint dishes long before they mastered the technique of "golden" coloring. Back in the 19th century, along with "gilded" wooden utensils, cheap cups and salt shakers were also made here, the surface of which was decorated only with the simplest geometric patterns - rosettes, rhombuses, spiral curls and wavy lines applied with a stamp or brush.

Most likely, the time of the appearance of the art of Khokhloma painting was the second half of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century, when the deaf Kerzhen forests became the place of settlement of the Old Believers who were fleeing the persecution of the tsarist government and church authorities. After church reforms, the opponents of Patriarch Nikon, who were forced to leave Moscow and the largest Russian cities, sought refuge here. Fleeing from the massacre, the participants of the Solovetsky Old Believer rebellion also fled here.

Among the schismatic settlers were icon painters and masters of manuscript miniatures. On a dark red background among the greenery, golden stems and petals glisten, made in the same icon-painting technique of gilding wood, which is close to Khokhloma.

Along with the painting technique, ornamental drawings, known to icon painters, also penetrated into Khokhloma. The origins of the main types of handicraft ornament can be seen in Russian decorative art of the 17th - early 18th centuries. At this time, the floral ornament was especially widespread, the methods of its execution were varied. When painting walls, furniture and household items, grass drawings were often made, applied freely with a brush. The drawing of flowers and leaves was completed by juicy strokes of white - animation. Such an ornament, associated with the traditions of painting of ancient Russia, served as the basis for the formation of Khokhloma grass patterns. Khokhloma painting also reflects graphic ornaments with clear linear contours and elaboration of details with a stroke. They contributed to the appearance of drawings in the "under the background" technique. The motifs of the "curly" were suggested by the drawings with curls that adorned the headpieces of the manuscripts. Many features of the Khokhloma paintings were the result of a merger in the craft of two traditional lines of Russian decorative art, one of which went back to the ornament of icon painting and manuscript miniatures, and the other to the crafts of ancient Russia. In each of them, folk national features of understanding the ornament were manifested in their own way, in each there were professionally developed techniques.

On the basis of this heritage, a new art is being formed in Khokhloma, connected in its future destinies with the design of household items. The floral ornament brought to Khokhloma by icon painters is undergoing significant changes. It becomes much more concise and clear. The nature of his composition was greatly influenced by the traditions of the most ancient geometric ornament, which was distinguished by classically simple and perfect techniques for constructing patterns.

In the art of the Khokhloma ornament, the features characteristic of folk decorative art are affirmed: great figurative expressiveness of the painting, decorativeness, extreme severity and stinginess of artistic means. They manifested themselves most clearly in the herbal ornaments that prevailed in the painting of dishes. Mastering new techniques of ornamentation, the craftsmen also preserved the earlier traditions of decorating dishes.

Great changes in the art of Khokhloma painting are associated with the first half of the 19th century. At this time, craftsmen learned to use cheap tin instead of silver, turning it into a powder convenient for applying to the surface of a tree. A new period has begun in the history of fishing. Now the craftsmen could almost completely paint the walls of bratins, cups, salt shakers, and supplies in a golden color. Drawings of Khokhloma grass, which made it possible to most effectively use the "golden" color, were at that time even more developed. Masters of Khokhloma comprehend the laws of painting on a golden background. In its ornamentation, the techniques of a planar silhouette interpretation of motifs are finally established, which are most appropriate for painting on a golden background. In the painting, whitewashing disappears, creating the impression of a voluminous form. Color gamut is limited. If earlier masters used white, blue, blue, pink, green and brown paints, now red, black and gold become the main colors of the ornament.

We often hear that the masters used red and black paints only because they do not burn out in the furnace during hardening. This is only partly true. Brown, green and yellow paints also do not change their color at high temperatures, but their use becomes very limited. Artists preferred the combination of red, black and gold, primarily because of its special decorative qualities. This color scheme was also appreciated by the masters of ancient Russia. But there was another reason as well. The golden color obtained by the masters was inferior to the color of gold in brightness and did not have the desired shade of warmth. The craftsmen sought to make this drawback as less noticeable as possible by painting with red and black paint, which created a sonorous color chord with a golden background. The fiery-bright cinnabar gave great warmth to the golden background, and the black paint contributed to the fact that it seemed lighter and brighter.

The execution of the ornament on a golden background led to the establishment of a type of composition characteristic of grass painting with an openwork pattern covering a significant part of the surface of the thing. It was unprofitable to expose the fake gold background in large areas of a smooth surface. Noticing this, the masters began to perform drawings in which the background only shone through the pattern and in the intervals between the motifs. The limitation of the colorful gamut of grass ornaments, the rejection of whitewash animation and the planar silhouette interpretation of motifs, it seemed, should have contributed to the loss of the qualities of picturesqueness. However, this does not happen. Khokhloma grass is perceived by us as a picturesque ornament, and not a graphic one, due to the fact that rhythmically arranged color spots remain at the heart of its composition. The picturesqueness of the grass patterns is also imparted by the softness of tonal relations, which is achieved by combining motifs painted with a wide stroke in the ornament and the introduction of a small grass addition, performed with a light touch of the brush.

For the formation of the Khokhloma ornament, its execution free of hand with a brush was of great importance. Now that the craftsmen have moved on to work on wide surfaces of a golden background, the propensity for the breadth of writing, characteristic of the temperament of the Russian leaf ornament, could be even more clearly manifested. A bold brushstroke becomes one of the main elements of the herbal pattern. Differently combining elongated strokes of red and black paint, large and small, juicy body and light, the craftsmen created motifs of herbs, flowers, bushes and trees with lush curly foliage. The pattern was complemented by a motif of berries and flowers, applied with a poke, swab or soft porous sponge. The lightness and ease of the master's ornamental handwriting become the criterion for the artistic merit of the work. Hand-painted with a brush, the craftsmen developed the habit of freely varying the ornament. The features of herbal patterns were also influenced by the forms of chiseled wooden utensils. Masters were looking for decoration techniques that were economical in terms of labor costs and provided the greatest artistic effect. In the process of their work, for each type of product in Khokhloma, typical painting compositions were found that most corresponded to the nature of their shape and size. Let's talk about some of them.

On large cups and dishes, craftsmen often performed one of the types of herbal ornament - "sedge". This is a pattern of stems and elongated grass leaves, as if bowed by a gust of wind. "Sedges" were located on the sides of cups and dishes, framing a rosette with a "gingerbread". The dynamic rhythm of the stems and herbs on the concave spherical surface of the bowl was especially noticeable due to the static pattern of the "carrot". In the drawings of the "sedge" the love of the masters for nature was manifested. Many masters talk about them as the most favorite types of grass ornament in the craft. “We always performed it willingly,” recalls the oldest craftswoman A.N. Tyukalova. “There is a lot of space in this drawing, and the cup is not stained and is very rich.” The stingy and well-aimed words of the craftswoman contain the people's understanding of the beauty of the ornament. The feeling of spaciousness, which pleases us in nature, is achieved in the "sedge" drawings due to the free placement of motifs against the golden background of the high sloping walls of the dishes. The golden background translucent through the openwork pattern of leaves and branches of the "sedge" gives the painting a festive and rich look.

Only in the second half of the 19th century, in connection with the development of furniture production in Khokhloma, did the technique of painting "under the background" become more widespread. Ornaments with golden flowers and birds on a black background, which were especially often performed on children's tables and chairs, attract attention with the beauty of the pattern applied with the free movements of the brush. As in grass drawings, in painting "under the background" there appear their own well-developed methods of ornamental cursive writing. The compositions become stricter, more concise and at the same time more emotionally expressive.

Techniques for the execution of the "curly" ornament are less laborious than painting "under the background". From the middle of the 19th century, many Khokhloma masters already widely owned them. Drawings "Kudrina" wrote on cups and on large "artel" dishes.

In the second half of the 19th century, quite a lot of types of products were created in Khokhloma. Here they made large flat dishes, reaching a diameter of a meter, known as artel or barge dishes, cups and plates of various sizes, setters, salt shakers, candeyka, scoops for flour and other products. At that time, the craft was a grandiose handicraft production of painted dishes. There was a clear division of labor between the inhabitants of the various villages.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Khokhloma fell on hard times. The demand for painted wooden utensils began to decline rapidly, gradually being replaced by factory-made products. The importance of craft as a supplier of items for everyday peasant use was falling. The difficult situation in folk crafts forced the Nizhny Novgorod Zemstvo to take emergency measures. It paid special attention to Khokhloma. Artists were sent there, trying to adapt her products to the tastes of urban buyers. At this time, a deep interest in the monuments of Russian antiquity arose among the Russian intelligentsia. They begin to study, collect. This brings popularity to handicrafts. In order to ensure the sale of Khokhloma products, artists began to make antique samples for her.

This is how ladles appeared in the field, bizarre in shape, reminiscent of snakes and dragons, chairs and sofas with horse heads, bulky tables and cupboards with heavy lathe legs, boxes for needlework, similar to cast-iron weights. When decorating these products, the motifs of painting "under the background" and "curly" were distorted. An ornament of "Slavic ligature" appeared - an unsuccessful imitation of the drawings of old handwritten headpieces. It was characterized by dry stylized forms and coarse motley coloring. It was impossible to write it with the methods familiar to Khokhloma, so stencils appeared in the work of the masters. Herbal painting at that time was performed only in those workshops where they continued to paint cheap cups and dishes for the rural market. "Grass" gets a disparaging name for simple coloring or "muzhik" drawings. For grass painting they paid half the price.

The folk art of craft has not died, and until now, you can often see a huge number of products painted under Khokhloma, delighting our eyes with their golden ornament.

At fairs, things painted in red, black and gold and decorated with drawings of berries, leaves and flowers were in great demand among Russians and foreigners.

The mega brand attracts not only with the beauty of the ornament. It is valued for its durable lacquer coating, thanks to which they are used in everyday life. In a Khokhloma dish, you can serve okroshka to the table, pour hot tea into a cup - and nothing will be done with a wooden product: varnish will not crack, paint will not fade.

Khokhloma painting- this is a bright original phenomenon of Russian folk arts and crafts. This traditional art craft originated in the 17th century in the Nizhny Novgorod province and got its name from the large trading village of Khokhloma, where all wooden products were brought for auction.

Initially, Khokhloma dishes were made at monasteries and intended for the royal court. Subsequently, when cheap metal and earthenware dishes competing with Khokhloma appeared on the market, the unusual color of Semenov's products ensured their popularity and sales.

So in the 19th century Khokhloma dishes could be found in any corner of Russia, as well as in Persia, India, Central Asia, the USA and Australia. After the World Exhibition of 1889. in Paris, the export of Khokhloma products has increased sharply

In 1916 in the city of Semenov, the School of Artistic Woodworking was opened, the first graduates of which, headed by G.P. Matveev organized a small artel (1931), which later grew into a large production association of the Order of the Badge of Honor Khokhloma Painting.

Since the mid 1960s. and to the present, the Khokhloma Painting enterprise is largest producer art products made of wood with Khokhloma painting. Thanks to a talented team, the traditions of ancient masters are preserved and multiplied. And the city of Semyonov is rightfully considered the capital of the Golden Khokhloma.

The folk craft has been constantly developing. Already at the end of the 19th century, Khokhloma was presented at every domestic and foreign fair. And after the unprecedented success of International exhibition in Paris, exports of Khokhloma rose sharply to various countries. Especially bought a lot trading companies Germany, England, France and India. Even one of the German entrepreneurs took up production wooden spoons who passed off as Khokhloma. Since the beginning of the 20th century, folk crafts have experienced a crisis caused by the World War and the Civil War. Because of this, many craftsmen lost orders and closed their workshops. In Soviet times, Khokhloma received a second wind, a new generation of craftsmen appeared. And now Khokhloma is “returning” to us in Russia and the world.

Khokhloma- this is the name of a large trading village in the Volga region, where craftsmen from the surrounding villages and villages have long brought their products for sale and from where they dispersed not only throughout Russia, but also beyond its borders. Later, the products themselves, sent from the village of Khokhloma, began to be called "Khokhloma". The homeland of Khokhloma art is a group of villages located in the depths of the once impenetrable forests of the Trans-Volga region, along the banks of the Uzola River, which flows into the Volga near the ancient Gorodets. The picturesque nature of this region had a great influence on the upbringing of the artistic tastes of local masters. Indeed, each work of Khokhloma masters is imbued with a subtle sense of nature.

There are a lot of versions of the origin of this folk craft. It is customary to single out the two most probable. According to the first version, the art of painting dishes was instilled in the local residents by the Old Believers who fled to the Nizhny Novgorod land from persecution by faith. According to the second version, the painting of dishes with gilded paint was known in the Nizhny Novgorod territory even before the appearance of the Old Believers. For this, tin powder and homemade wooden utensils were used.

The high cost of raw materials for the manufacture of gilded paint held back the development of this folk craft for a long time. Tin had to be transported from afar, which only merchants could do. Most often, craftsmen received orders for painted gilded dishes from large monasteries and cathedrals. The customers even turned out to be the famous monastery of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, where craftsmen from the villages of Khokhloma and Skorobogatovo worked on the manufacture and painting of bowls and ladles.

The original technology of gilding wooden products, worked out for centuries, which came from icon painting, has survived almost unchanged to this day. It includes five main operations. Before becoming "gold", a wooden product is similar to "clay" and "silver".

The process of making Khokhloma is complex and interesting. The tree was chopped, sawn, trimmed, hollowed out and finished with a knife to the end, polished. It turned out wooden bases - buckwheat. Dishes were also turned on a machine that was driven by the power of water or a horse. Today, machine tools are electrical. The dried product must be prepared for painting. First, I coat it with linseed oil, then with a special primer, which includes clay. The product is dried in an oven, polished, coated with drying oil, so that a sticky film appears, to which crushed metal powder easily sticks - semida. The half-day is rubbed, and the object becomes like silver.

And only now the dyer is taken to work. When the product is painted, it is covered with several layers of drying oil and hardened in a furnace at high temperature. Under a film of hardened varnish, everything that was silver in the painting becomes gold. So Khokhloma becomes first wooden, “clay”, “silver” and, finally, “gold”. The masters borrowed this secret of gilding from icon painters.

After tinning, the dishes become mirror-shiny and absolutely ready for applying patterns with oil paints. According to ancient instructions, painting is done exclusively with brushes from squirrel tails, and paints are used of natural origin. Red and black colors are soloists in the Khokhloma painting. Such paints are obtained from cinnabar and soot. To give products liveliness and volume, it is sometimes allowed to add additional colors to the main colors. As a rule, it is the color of delicate green, brown or slightly yellow.

On the final stage, after applying all the patterns, the dishes are covered in several layers with a special varnish. Each layer has an individual drying time. Further, the dishes are subjected to temperature effects (hardened in an oven) at certain temperatures. As a result of all these manipulations, the world-famous dishes appear - the “golden” Khokhloma.

KHOKHLOM ORNAMENTS

In Khokhloma, horse and “under the background” painting is distinguished. Horse painting is characterized by black and red flowers on a golden background. As a rule, in painting “under the background”, golden drawings on a colored background predominate. The main difference between these two types of painting lies in the technique of their application.

Briefly, their difference can be defined as follows: “horse writing” is a pattern applied with paint on the golden surface of the background. With “background writing”, the master, on the contrary, covers the golden background with red or black, leaving the silhouette forms of motifs in gold. On the basis of these two systems, a truly inexhaustible wealth of Khokhloma patterns developed.

TYPES OF KHOKHLOMSK PATTERNS

From Khokhloma patterns and ornaments, the following types can be distinguished. Grass - looks like a pattern of small and large blades of grass or twigs. Gingerbread - most often found inside bowls or dishes, and is a geometric figure in the form of a rhombus or square, decorated with berries, flowers, grass. Kudrina - a pattern of flowers and leaves that look like golden curls on a black or red background. Leaf - images of oval berries and leaves, located, as a rule, around the stem. The types of ornaments listed above are complex, but in some cases, masters use simplified ornaments. One of these ornaments is a speck, applied with a stamp, which is made from pieces of fabric folded in a special way or plates of a puffball mushroom. All Khokhloma products are painted by hand, while the painting is not repeated anywhere.

Masters of the traditional Khokhloma hearth live and work surrounded by nature. In their ornaments, the elements of a free meadow, the beauty of wild flowers and ripe berries of the Russian forest are poetically sung. The painting is dominated by the picturesque beginning - the freedom of the brushstroke, the richness of the color spot. In the city of Semenov, Gorky Region, there is a younger center of Khokhloma - the production and creative association “Khokhloma Painting”, the main personnel of which were trained in a special art school organized in 1918 and currently operating, the first teachers of which were hereditary Khokhloma masters.

In folk ideas, the color system of Khokhloma painting was directly related to the color of the sky and celestial phenomena; its glow and blush. The red color in folk symbolism was understood not only in the meaning of beautiful, beautiful. He was also a symbol of fire, it is no coincidence that the people called him "hot". In colloquial language, the Moon, the Sun and its rays were called red. The patterns of Khokhloma painting are not only bathed in a stream of light, but by their very nature they are luminous. And like a wonderful vision they appear in a marvelous golden radiance.

Khokhloma painting (Khokhloma) is an old Russian folk craft that was born in the 17th century in the district of Nizhny Novgorod.

Khokhloma is decorative painting wooden utensils and furniture, made in red, green and black tones on a golden background. khokhloma painting art

When painting a tree, not gold, but silver-tin powder is applied to the tree. After that, the product is covered with a special composition and processed three or four times in the oven, which achieves a honey-golden color, giving the effect of massiveness to light wooden utensils.

The painting looks bright, despite the dark background.

To create a picture, paints such as red, yellow, orange, a little green and blue are used.

The traditional elements of Khokhloma are red rowan and strawberry berries, flowers and branches. Often there are birds, fish and animals.

The history of the emergence and development of painting

It is believed that Khokhloma painting originated in the 17th century on the left bank of the Volga, in the villages of Big and Small Bezdel, Mokushino, Shabashi, Glibino, Khryashchi. The village of Khokhloma was a major sales center, where finished goods, hence the name of the painting. Currently, the village of Kovernino in the Nizhny Novgorod region is considered the birthplace of Khokhloma.

To date, there are many versions of the origin of Khokhloma painting, below are the two most common:

According to the most common version, the unique way of painting wooden utensils “under gold” in the forest Trans-Volga region and the very birth of the Khokhloma craft were attributed to the Old Believers. Even in ancient times, among the inhabitants of local villages, securely sheltered in the wilderness of forests, there were many "leakers", that is, people fleeing persecution for the "old faith".

Among the Old Believers who moved to the Nizhny Novgorod land there were many icon painters, masters of book miniatures. They brought with them ancient icons and handwritten books with colorful headpieces, fine painting skills, free brush calligraphy and examples of the richest floral ornament.

In turn, local craftsmen excellently mastered turning skills, passed down from generation to generation the skills of making dishware molds, the art of three-dimensional carving.

At the turn of the XVII-XVIII centuries, the forest Trans-Volga region became a real artistic treasury. The art of Khokhloma inherited from the Trans-Volga masters the "classical forms" of turning utensils, the plasticity of the carved forms of ladles, spoons, and from the icon painters - the pictorial culture, the skill of the "thin brush". And, no less important, the secret of making "golden" dishes without the use of gold.

But there are documents showing otherwise.

A method of imitation of gilding on wood, related to Khokhloma, was used by Nizhny Novgorod artisans in coloring wooden utensils as early as 1640-1650, before the appearance of the Old Believers.

In the large Nizhny Novgorod handicraft villages of Lyskovo and Murashkino, in the Trans-Volga "selishka Semenovskoye" ( future city Semenov - one of the centers of Khokhloma painting) made wooden utensils - brothers, ladles, dishes for the festive table - painted "for pewter", that is, using tin powder. The method of painting wooden utensils “for pewter”, probably preceding Khokhloma, developed from the experience of icon painters and local Volga traditions of utensil craft.

For a long time in the Trans-Volga region they have been engaged in the manufacture of wooden utensils.

Wood was the most convenient and affordable material for creating household items. Nimble shuttles - "boots" were hollowed out of tree trunks, figured ladles were cut out, decorating their handles with carved silhouettes of horses, and various forms of dishes were carved.

The proximity of the great Volga route contributed to the fact that wooden utensils were made here early for sale. However, the first utensil crafts of the Trans-Volga region did not differ in any way from the many similar industries that developed on the territory of our country.

Probably, the masters of the Trans-Volga region began to paint dishes long before they mastered the technique of "golden" coloring.

Back in the 19th century, along with "gilded" wooden utensils, cheap cups and salt shakers were also made here, the surface of which was decorated only with the simplest geometric patterns - rosettes, rhombuses, spiral curls and wavy lines applied with a stamp or brush.

The techniques closest to Khokhloma painting are found among icon painters. Masters of ancient Russia knew how to save expensive metal. To paint the background of the icon in a golden color, they sometimes used not gold, but silver powder. After painting, the icon was covered with varnish made from linseed oil and heated in an oven. Under the influence of high temperature, the lacquer film acquired a golden hue, and the silver powder shining through it became like gold. This technique became especially widespread in the 17th - 18th centuries, when the decoration of Russian churches became especially rich and magnificent. They create tall gilded iconostases with large icons. Icon cases and church furniture are painted in golden color. The techniques of writing with silver instead of gold at that time became known to a wide range of Russian icon painters. (Fig. 1)

Great changes in the art of Khokhloma painting are associated with the first half of the 19th century. At this time, instead of silver, craftsmen learned to use cheap tin, turning it into a powder convenient for applying to the surface of a tree. A new period has begun in the history of fishing. Now the craftsmen could almost completely paint the walls of bratins, cups, salt shakers, and supplies in a golden color.

Drawings of Khokhloma grass, which made it possible to most effectively use the "golden" color, were at that time even more developed. Masters of Khokhloma comprehend the laws of painting on a golden background. In its ornamentation, the techniques of a planar silhouette interpretation of motifs are finally established, which are most appropriate for painting on a golden background. In the painting, whitewashing disappears, creating the impression of a voluminous form. Color gamut is limited. If earlier masters used white, blue, blue, pink, green and brown paints, now red, black and gold become the main colors of the ornament. (fig.2)

The golden color obtained by the masters was inferior to the color of gold in brightness and did not have the desired shade of warmth. The masters tried to make this drawback less noticeable by painting with red and black paint, which created a sonorous color chord with a golden background. The fiery-bright cinnabar gave great warmth to the golden background, and the black paint contributed to the fact that it seemed lighter and brighter.

The execution of the ornament on a golden background led to the establishment of a type of composition characteristic of grass painting with an openwork pattern covering a significant part of the surface of the thing. It was unprofitable to expose the fake gold background in large areas of a smooth surface. Noticing this, the masters began to perform drawings in which the background only shone through the pattern and in the intervals between the motifs. (fig.3)

For the formation of the Khokhloma ornament, its execution free of hand with a brush was of great importance.

The propensity for the breadth of writing, characteristic of the temperament of the Russian leaf ornament, is more clearly manifested. A bold brushstroke becomes one of the main elements of the herbal pattern. Combining elongated strokes of red and black paint in different ways, the craftsmen created motifs of herbs, flowers, bushes and trees with lush curly foliage.

The pattern was complemented by a motif of berries and flowers, applied with a poke, swab or soft porous sponge. The lightness and ease of the master's ornamental handwriting become the criterion for the artistic merit of the work. Hand-painted with a brush, the craftsmen developed the habit of freely varying the ornament. The features of herbal patterns were also influenced by the forms of chiseled wooden utensils. In the process of their work, for each type of product in Khokhloma, typical painting compositions were found that most corresponded to the nature of their shape and size.

The drawings on bowls and dishes are based on a subtle understanding of the techniques of composing an ornament in a circle. When painting cups and dishes, the craftsmen clearly distinguished their bottom, placing a rosette on it with lines radiating from the center like the sun's rays. On larger objects, a square or rhombus with softly rounded corners was drawn around the rosette, which was called a gingerbread, due to its resemblance to a real patterned gingerbread placed in a cup. A pattern associated with the movement of the brush in a circle was made around the center of the cup. The simplest drawing consisted of vertical or oblique red and black strokes. Complicating it, the masters placed two or three red and black elongated strokes next to each other, connecting their ends below. It turned out the motif of the so-called "paw", resembling a bird's track in the snow. (Fig. 4)

On large cups and dishes, craftsmen often performed one of the types of herbal ornament - "sedge". This is a pattern of stems and elongated grass leaves, as if bowed by a gust of wind.

"Sedges" were located on the sides of cups and dishes, framing a rosette with a "gingerbread". The dynamic rhythm of the stems and herbs on the concave spherical surface of the bowl was especially noticeable due to the static pattern of the "carrot". (Fig. 5)

On supplies and salt boxes, which had a cylindrical shape, the craftsmen created drawings for four "flowers" or "trees", depicting shoots rising from the ground. On a golden background, they placed two red and two black stems with patterned foliage on the branches, as if stretching towards the light and the sun. (Fig. 6)

Knowing traditional motifs and typical compositions, even ordinary painters could create highly artistic works. Their work, and this is perhaps the most valuable, never turned into the work of a copyist. Typical compositions served only as guidelines to facilitate the work.

Floral ornament in the "under the background" technique and "curly" drawings in the 19th century were performed by craftsmen much less frequently than grass patterns, so Khokhloma's artistic heritage in this area is much poorer.

Both of these types of painting were more laborious than grass painting, and for a long time only the most experienced masters owned them.

Only in the second half of the 19th century, in connection with the development of furniture production in Khokhloma, did the technique of painting "under the background" become more widespread. Ornaments with golden flowers and birds on a black background, which were especially often performed on children's tables and chairs, attract attention with the beauty of the pattern applied with the free movements of the brush. As in grass drawings, in painting "under the background" there appear their own well-developed methods of ornamental cursive writing. Compositions become stricter, more concise and at the same time more emotionally expressive. (Fig. 7)

Techniques for the execution of the "curly" ornament are less laborious than painting "under the background". From the middle of the 19th century, many Khokhloma masters already widely owned them. Drawings "Kudrina" wrote on cups and on large "artel" dishes. With their large monumental forms, they resembled the patterns of the Volga house carving. In the second half of the 19th century, the motifs of "curly hair" were often performed in the painting of spoons. In each workshop, they were written by the most skilled craftsmen on the so-called spoons with a "face", which were placed one at a time on top in a box with cheap simple spoons to show the abilities and skills of the "clerks". (Fig. 8)

Khokhloma - an old Russian folk craft that arose in the 17th century in the Volga region (the village of Semino, Nizhny Novgorod province). This is perhaps the most famous type of Russian folk painting. It is a decorative painting on wooden utensils and furniture, made in red and black (rarely green) tones and gold on a golden background. It is surprising that when painting a tree, not gold, but silver tin powder is applied. Then the product is coated with a special composition and processed three or four times in an oven. This is when this delightful honey-gold color appears, thanks to which light wooden utensils seem massive. Traditional Khokhloma ornament - juicy red strawberries and mountain ash, flowering branches. Birds, fish and all sorts of animals are less common.
Initially, the word Khokhloma meant the name of one of the trading villages. Here, craftsmen from the surrounding villages brought their products. It was the time of the revival of Russia, which came after the liberation from the devastating Tatar-Mongol yoke, the time of renovation of temples and churches. Folk crafts have become a new source of livelihood. The new craft united the centuries-old traditions of local residents and refugees, especially the Old Believers.
The folk craft has been constantly developing. Already at the end of the 19th century, Khokhloma was presented at every domestic and foreign fair. And after the unprecedented success at the International Exhibition in Paris, the export of Khokhloma has grown dramatically to various countries. Trading firms in Germany, England, France and India bought especially much. Even one of the German entrepreneurs took up the production of wooden spoons, which he passed off as Khokhloma. Since the beginning of the 20th century, folk crafts have experienced a crisis caused byworld and civil wars. Because of this, many craftsmen lost orders and closed their workshops. In Soviet times, Khokhloma received a second wind, a new generation of craftsmen appeared. And now Khokhloma is "returning" to us in Russia and the world.

Legend of "Khokhloma"

More recently, in the villages of the Gorky region, one could hear the legend of how Khokhloma came to the Volga land and where she got her fiery colors.

They say that a master icon painter lived in Moscow in ancient times. The king highly appreciated his skills and generously rewarded him for his efforts. The master loved his craft, but most of all he loved the free life, and therefore one day he secretly left the royal court and moved to the remote Kerzhen forests.

He cut down his hut and began to do the same business. He dreamed of such art that would become dear to everyone, like a simple Russian song, and that beauty would be reflected in it. native land. And so the first Khokhloma cups appeared, decorated with lush flowers and thin twigs.

The fame of the great master spread throughout the earth. People came from everywhere to admire his skill. Many cut huts here and settled nearby.

Finally, the glory of the master reached the formidable sovereign, and he ordered a detachment of archers to find the fugitive and bring him. But faster than the archer's feet, popular rumor flew. The master found out about his trouble, gathered fellow villagers and revealed to them the secrets of his craft. And in the morning, when the royal messengers entered the village, everyone saw how the hut of the miracle artist was burning with a bright flame. The hut burned down, and no matter how they searched for the master himself, they were not found anywhere. Only its colors remained on the ground, which seemed to absorb both the heat of the flame and the blackness of the ashes.

The master has disappeared, but his skill has not disappeared, and Khokhloma colors still burn with a bright flame, reminding everyone of the happiness of freedom, and the heat of love for people, and the thirst for beauty. It can be seen that the master's brush was not simple - a brush made of sunlight.

Such is the legend. Like any legend, there is a lot of fiction in it, but its truth is that great skill and great art are preserved only when they are passed from hand to hand, from teacher to student.

Making "Golden Khokhloma"

Russia is a country of forests. Here, both huts and rich mansions were cut from wood. Logs burning hot in the oven and a splinter inserted into the light warmed and illuminated the hut. Sledges, sledges, firewood, a cart - a simple transport, canoes, boats, plows, boats and other river vessels - everything was made of wood.

The most ancient letters - birch bark letters written on pieces of birch bark, and the most familiar peasant shoes in the past - bast shoes woven from the inside of the linden bark - bast, wooden furniture, dishes, household utensils, children's toys - everything tells us about the great role of the forest in the life of a Russian person.

Zavolzhie, rich in forests, was especially famous for its masters of woodworking. Since ancient times, light and durable dishes have been made here from aspen and linden.

The tree was chopped and hewn with axes, sawn into small logs - buckwheat, deepened parts of objects were hollowed out with an adze, and the rest was finished with a knife. A spoon created with hand tools often has an irregular shape; on its surface you can see humps, dents, and a faceted handle. All these are traces of the work of the carver, each of his spoons is the only one, none of them exactly repeats the other.

The dishes were turned and lathe. The machine was manual, water or driven by a horse. The dishes made on a lathe have a flat and smooth surface, geometrically regular shape. each spoon turned by a turner exactly repeats the other in shape.

Simple bowls, cups, supplies can be carved by every trained turner. More complex forms - ladles - ducks, ladles - roosters are not carved by every master, but an artist is a craftsman, a person who feels the laws of building a fine, beautiful form.

Turned products with a delicate, slightly pinkish surface of the treated wood are called"linen".

Despite the fact that Khokhloma objects are made of wood, it is never visible, and the golden surface or patterns on the colored background of the products cast a soft metallic sheen.

Gold - a noble beautiful material - is rarely found in nature. Already in very ancient times, gold was used to create jewelry and dishes. In Russia, it was served at rich royal meals and boyar feasts. In addition, dyed, most often red-colored dishes were painted with gold leaf or crafted gold.

Leaf is called very thin leaves of this metal, which are carefully glued to pre-marked places, and created - fine gold powder, diluted with a special solution. It was applied like paint with a brush. These techniques were known to icon painters and miniaturists - masters who decorated handwritten books with drawings and ornaments. Objects and icons gilded in this way were cheaper than those made entirely of gold.

Masters - icon painters invented another way of "cheap" gilding: they covered with drying oil - boiled linseed oil - leaves of silver and silver glued to the surface of the icon. The yellow film of dried drying oil on silver was very similar to gold. Peasant craftsmen began to cover with drying oil not silver, but tin - a silvery, quite common metal. And so the golden Khokhloma dishes appeared on the peasant table.

Golden, red and black - you can find such a combination of colors on many objects of ancient Russian applied art and works of folk craftsmen. For "Khokhloma" these colors are especially important: red gives warmth and softness to artificial gold, and black enhances its radiance. In addition, the round surfaces of objects do not have sharp contours and scatter light.

Fishing technology

So we now know the secret Khokhloma gold. But, it turns out, before becoming gold, "Khokhloma" is both silver and clay.

The first of these mugs is called "linen". First, it is dried and then polished - all small roughnesses are removed with a special sandpaper or on a machine, and then from the realm of golden shavings it gets to the dyer. The dried and polished product must be prepared for painting. First, it is coated with linseed oil, and then with a special composition - vape or soil . Modern masters called ground overlay - vapes primer . Vapa is reddish-brown in color because it contains clay. A mug smeared with vape looks like a clay mug - under a dense layer of soil, a tree is not visible at all.

The primed product was dried in an oven, then polished, and its surface became smooth and glossy. After that, the mug was smeared several times with drying oil - so that the soil was soaked and a sticky varnish film appeared on its surface. This film adheres easily. noon - powdered metal. In the old days, tin served as half-day, and now it is aluminum, a silvery, light and cheap material.

Rubbing the poluda is called tinned . The tinned mug looks like a silver mug: half-hearth covered the wood with an even layer, and it seems that the mug is cast from metal - it shines with a matte silver sheen.

And only now the brush of a master dyer can touch it. Artists work smartly and diligently. Their usual tools are thin brushes, which they often make themselves from squirrel tails,"bobbleheads" (a piece of sheep's wool wrapped around a stick, or a mushroom - a raincoat) and small jars of paints.

So, the silvery tinned theft is painted. The dyer has finished his work and has already laid the last stroke of paint. Well, what about gold? When will the product shimmering with a cold metallic sheen sparkle with a joyful golden color? This last sacrament is in charge of the lachila and the stove-maker. Previously, a painted product was covered with several layers of varnish - drying oil, and then hardened in an oven at a rather high temperature. And now hand-lacquered objects are hardened in an electric furnace at a temperature of 160 - 180 degrees.

Modern lacquers cover the product with synthetic yellow varnish from spray guns. Under a film of hardened varnish, everything that was silver in the painting becomes gold.

Khokhloma patterns

A familiar three-legged shaggy leaf, a touching star of a flower, a curved twig and, of course, it is a small drop of forest sweetness - a strawberry.

Khokhloma artists like to draw strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries, black and red currants, mountain ash on the surfaces of their products. They call berries affectionately, and even the same master will never write them in the same way: he will slightly change the outline of the sheet, bend the twigs in a different way, scatter flowers and berries - and now the same motif will speak to us in a new way.

In this variety of ornamental motifs, the richness of the artist's creative imagination, and his skill, and his powers of observation are manifested.

Khokhloma images are decorative - they are in the very general view convey the beauty of life. These are ornaments - decorations of objects. And that is why artists create the impression of constant fluidity and changeability of life by changing their ornamental motif.

The pattern of flowers, herbs and berries is called vegetable ornament. But there are several types of this ornament in Khokhloma painting. The most beloved and ancient of them -"grass ornament", or just "weed" . These are elongated, slightly curved blades of grass, written in threes, fives or more - in a bush. "Grass" remotely resembles a sedge inhabitant of water meadows, coastal lakes and rivers. One of the types of this ornament is called"sedge" . But still, it resembles this living grass very remotely, or, as the artists say, the form of real grass in this ornament is generalized - the artist retained only its most general and main features.

Weed is usually written in red and black. Its main wide and long leaves are juicy, because a lot of paint is taken on the brush, and it lies tightly on the surface of the object. The tips of the leaves are written thinly, they curl, as if bending from the wind. Thin and frequent strokes - blades of grass on the sides of the main bush and beads - berries on long stems make this painting especially lively and elegant.

"Grass" is an independent type of painting, but it is an indispensable part of any "Khokhloma" floral ornament. Very often, among the bushes and twigs of black, red, green or yellow grass, the artist places berries, flowers, birds and fish. Such an ornament is also called "herbal", or the name of a berry or flower.

Like a fiery wheel, the most beautiful ornament "gingerbread" rolls along the bottom of the bowls.

Khokhloma murals adorn objects - bowls, ladles, vases, rounded bodies that seem to tell the artist where to bend the twig, where to scatter berries. We say: painting is subject to the form of the object.

For a long time in Russia, images of flowering bushes and fruits were considered a wish for good, prosperity and happiness. This wonderful tradition is preserved today by Khokhloma artists, decorating ordinary objects with elegant paintings. And with them, beauty and joy come to our house, which are generously given to us by craftsmen.