The newspaper "Zvyazda" published an article about our gallery-workshop
The newspaper "Zvyazda" published an article about our gallery-workshop
"At the distance of one film Author: Nadeja Drindrozhik https://zviazda.by/be/news/20230113/1673626314-na-adleglasci-adnago-filma-syamya-kupila-staruyu-vyascovuyu-hatu-i-za An art gallery in a remote village? Away from the capital?.. Artur and Lora Pavlova, from Minsk, only smile when they hear similar questions full of surprise. "And why not? Art has no boundaries. The bolder the idea, the greater the probability that it will be successful, will resonate with people." About the reproduction of Shishkin and one chair It all started nine years ago. From the fact that Arthur and Laura bought an old house on the shore of a picturesque lake in the small but very beautiful village of Charosava near Lepel. There was no point in repairing. During the time that the building stood without care, the logs rotted. Therefore, the new owners built another clapboard house in its place. - All these nine years we drove past an abandoned wooden house, which is located a hundred meters from our house. And they paid no attention to her, says Artur Pavlov. - And only last year, in May, when they drove past once again, Laura (she is an artist) said: "Arthur, I don't have a normal studio. Let's buy this house and I will paint in it?" "You have to think about it," I answered. And already in June he completed the documents for that house. - How did the idea to make a picture gallery of international level in a simple village house come about? - In the house that Artur and I originally bought for my workshop, we found two pictures in frames among a lot of junk, says Lora Pavlova. - One of them is a reproduction of Shishkin's "Oaks of Mardvina" from 1891. We don't know the author of the second one, but it also has nature on it. Today, they take pride of place in our permanent exhibition. We left them, preserved them as part of the history of a simple Belarusian house, which turned into an art gallery. When I first came here, I was struck by the presence of paintings. I immediately felt that the house had good energy and I would like to paint here. And then I imagined that here you can not only work, but also organize exhibitions. "Can you imagine," I say to Artur, "if paintings by various artists will be exhibited here in Charosava, people will start coming here, including from abroad, the village will come alive even more." - That's how the idea of combining an artist's workshop with an international art gallery... I grabbed this idea, got inspired, - says Artur. — At the end of July, he rolled up his sleeves and started reconstruction. Only then I had no idea how much everything would have to be redone... - You bought a house on June 13 last year. And already on December 24, the opening of the gallery-home of the artist "Lora Pavlova gallery Lepey" took place. Only six months have passed, and the old house is unrecognizable. How was it possible to restore everything so quickly? - As they say, the eyes fear, but the hands do. An idea and a desire is the most important driver. I worked almost every day from morning to night. He did almost everything himself. Only from time to time he brought in assistants. Saved a lot of money this way. Many ideas were born during the reconstruction process, because there were surprises at every step... When we bought a house, we thought: let's paint the walls, floor, ceiling a little... And then, after the rain, it turned out that the roof was leaking and the stove was smoking... Therefore, it was necessary to completely replace the old roof with a new one, and the huge stove, which occupied 1/3 of the house, with a compact, more energy-efficient stove-fireplace. By the way, we gave the old brick a second life - we closed the holes left in the floor at the place of the former stove. - It was possible to demolish the old building and do everything from scratch. But you went the other way... - Who will be surprised by a modern building today? They are all the same: the walls are white, everything is perfectly even. We wanted the gallery to be "highlighted". That's why they built a new one, keeping all the good, old... - What was saved? - The old log cabin was completely preserved. From the outside, it was lined with pine boards using the technology of the vent facade. Inside, they specially left the texture of the tree, I just cleaned all the logs with a sander. In the part of the house where the exhibition hall is now located, the walls were plastered with clay on wooden chips. We restored that plaster a bit, specifically keeping all the bumps, depressions and bulges that were there, and painted it white. Such walls can be viewed for a long time, they are like a separate work of art. They also left the old floor, because it is made of boards about eight centimeters thick. Now they cannot be found. This floor, as I say, will last forever. When they replaced the old windows with new ones, it turned out that they were "clumped up" - they are not in the same plane with the facade. It was possible, of course, to level it, but we decided to keep this curvature as well. By the way, after we cleared the plot of overgrowth, it turned out that one side of the house, where Laura's workshop is now, has a gorgeous view of the field, so we specially replaced the small windows with one large panoramic one. From the furniture that was here