SALALAH, July 19 - The Russian stall at the International Handicraft Pavillion at the Salalah Tourism Festival easily attracts every passerby’s attention for its colourful handicraft products including Matryoshka dolls, lacquered iron trays, wooden toys and birch bark crafts.
The stall owners themselves are decorated artists and academicians, who carry loads of experience in the field. Larisa Goncharova and Nikolai Gushchin have been seriously pursuing the passion of preserving the Russian folk art and they have been doing it very successfully.
Larisa is the custodian of a culture and an art form which is coming into her family from generations ‑ to be more precise, since 1830. Learnt the rare painting skills from her mother, Larisa is carrying the skill preserved in her family for four generations.
“My mother learnt the skills from my grandfather; and grandfather from my great grandfather. Now I am carrying the family passion and I am very proud of doing it. My grandfather and great grandfather were craftsmen who lived and worked in Zhostovo, which is famous centre of the old folk craft,” she said while explaining her involvement with art and culture.
A decorated artist Larisa is member of the Union of Artists and has been awarded by the Russian Academy of Art. Her mother Nina Nikolaevna Goncharova, who is her real teacher, is also an honoured artist of Russia.
Larisa’s expertise is in lacquered iron trays, which can be easily recognised by a fantastic bouquet of flowers on the black background. The skill of decorating trays has been there for nearly 200 years and is inherited through generations carefully. Larisa’s has her exhibitions in Germany, USA and England.
She works in the museums of the applied art in Sergiev Posa, New Lerusalim, Uglich, Dmitrov, in the Warsaw Natioanl Exhibition Fund and in the private collections in the USA, Australia, England, France, Argentina, Canada, Spain and Japan.
She explained Matryoshka, more popular as ‘Russian doll’ or ‘babushka doll’, as one of the best known and most popular Russian souvenirs, which is a set of painted wooden dolls with decreasing sizes one hidden under another.
“The number of big and small dolls varies from three to ten, but in some cases reaches up to 50 and even more. The traditional Matryoshka doll represents a woman dressed in a Russian peasant outfit and the smaller dolls represent her family.”
Among other items the Russian team handicraft team has brought include different kinds of decoration pieces made of wood.
A confident woman and unique work that she does, Larisa does not any competition in her area of work. “In fact I want some competition and for that I take classes to teach the skill and pass it on to the next generation,” she said.
Carrying the passion of her forefathers, Larisa is not sure about her children adopting the same profession.
“But yes they do have interest in art and culture and with support from my husband my work becomes more interesting.”
Kaushalendra Singh
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