Welcome, to the best . . .

. . . of Russian art and so much more.

Art and hand crafts from Russia have been a specialty of this gallery since 1985.

    We still have matryoshka dolls (nesting dolls) which are marked "made in USSR" from this time period.  These are a joyful and very inexpensive collectible.  Besides this early form of the matryoshka, we also have dedicated ourselves to search out and discover new, talented artists, who bring their creativity and beauty to this art medium.

    Some of these artists also create our hand-carved and painted Grandfather Frost sculptures.  Grandfather Frost is the Russian Santa Claus.

    Other artists  create papier mache' boxes which are egg tempera or oil painted with a single hair paint brush.  This art began in Fedoskino, Russia in 1795 as small oil painted snuff boxes.  The paintings from this time period often depicted flower arrangements, scenic landscapes, portraits of wealthy patrons or country villagers in their daily life.  When the communists took over Russia, religious expression including icon painting was banned so many of the artists from the icon centers of Palekh, Mstera, and Kholui borrowed the papier mache' box idea from Fedoskino and began painting fairy tales on their boxes with egg tempera paints.

    One of the five artists from Palekh, Russia who formed the modern box painting school there was an artist by the name of Alexander Kotukhin.  His grandson, named after him, has returned to the family roots of icon painting.  We feature some of Kotukhin's miniature icon paintings.  Enameled (finift) icons, boxes and jewelry by other artists and craftsmen are also highlighted.

     The year Catherine-the-Great arrived in Russia is the year D. Vinogradov discovered the secret of making porcelain using Gzhel clays and Olonets quartz and alabaster.  The Imperial Porcelain Manufactory (later renamed Lomonosov Porcelain) was established later that year.  It was the first porcelain factory in Russia and only the third in all of Europe.  The porcelain animal figurines and tea sets are widely collected.

    This gallery also includes Bohemian cased-crystal which is perhaps the best cut crystal in the world.  We also feature lithophanes, which are porcelain images made as night lights, light stands and lamps.

    We also hope you enjoy the classic landscape black and white photography from the Rocky Mountains by gallery owner, Craig Hendee.  These silver gelatin archival prints are made to last centuries.

    We hope you enjoy this web site; but, want you to know that we also have an existing physical location as well in Estes Park, Colorado, the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park.  Stop in and see us when you are in town, as we offer so much more than we can show here.

 

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