The Testament of a Beautiful Man

His paintings are not even a "window onto nature," but a portal. You step on wet snow, feel a flake of the blizzard on your cheek and the gusts of a pre-storm wind. And your eyes water from the generous watercolor sun.

Bright March

This is the title of one of the works shown at the recently opened exhibition in Izhevsk "Vladimir Kuznetsov. The Nature of Udmurtia in Watercolor." A delicate haze around the birch trunks, the first grass in a color so vivid it stings the eyes, and the quiet, clean sky overturned in a puddle. The reflected fragment of the firmament mesmerizes, holding the viewer’s gaze for a long time! Step a little to the side — and you find yourself in a windy summer day. The master calculated the flow of paint so precisely that its drips on the wet paper convey the swaying of the treetops before a storm. A pale gray of moonlit fullness, the hot copper of a summer sunset, the deep lilac of swelling twilight — each time you spot the dominant color from afar, you move toward it, stare, and discover new shades. These watercolors look into your soul as you study them.

The extremely demanding "alla prima" technique (from Italian — "in one sitting, on the first try") involves creating a watercolor piece in 15–20 minutes while the paper is still wet. After that, the work is practically impossible to correct or add to. Landscapes in the "alla prima" technique are difficult to paint en plein air, but even harder to do from memory. A series of preparatory studies can help, but can also ruin everything. In "wet-on-wet" watercolor there must always remain the illusion of an impromptu, virtuoso sketch, a caught impression. This requires from the artist incredible concentration, precise visual judgment, firmness of hand, and the highest professionalism. Runs and washes of paint, fuzzy silhouetted edges, soft tones, the most delicate color transitions, transparency, purity — these are what create the magic of "alla prima" watercolors!

A collection of the best watercolor works by Vladimir Kuznetsov, painted in the last ten years of his life, is a kind of artist's testament. He used to say: "We lived on beautiful land, knew how to feel the ardor of the early dawn, loved the Russian birch, and let the grandchildren know it!"

Moonlit Path

Vladimir was born with an artist’s sensibility and preserved and developed his gift. Just as the moon leaves a path of light on the water’s surface, the artist’s work illuminated the place of his stay in this world. Throughout his short life (1950–2000) Vladimir Petrovich Kuznetsov lived in the settlement of Uva. He did not simply absorb the surrounding nature, streets, houses, people, and the atmosphere of his homeland as a boy — he closely observed and tried to draw them. As a teenager he became the school artist-designer: he was entrusted with posters, wall newspapers, displays, and event announcements. Once his future wife Lyusya, who was five years younger, showed a school photo of herself with a friend. And Volodya said: "That portrait of Gorky on the stage behind you — I drew it."

Having finished ten years of school, the talented young man went to Izhevsk and enrolled in the Faculty of Fine Arts at Udmurt State University, passing all specialized subjects with top marks. But at 19, after the death of his father, a front-line soldier, Vladimir became the eldest man in a large family. He returned to his native settlement, worked as an artist-designer at the Youth Cultural Center, served in the army, married, raised two children, and worked hard. Yet he continued to learn, to cultivate his professionalism, to perfect himself. He would get up at 5–6 a.m., making time to do a sketch before work. Or he would finish something late at night when the house was asleep. On weekends, in any weather, he would go out to wander the surroundings with his easel. The artist's widow, Lyudmila Petrovna, recalls: "He would sometimes wind the alarm and get up at night to catch the beautiful moon. He loved to come to the same place in the forest and paint it at different times of the year. He was in love with sunsets and sunrises. Every spring the house was filled with the scent of bird cherry and lilac. Volodya would gather armfuls of flowering branches — he loved to paint them. He couldn’t live without it!"

Kuznetsov managed everything he set his hand to. He mastered wood carving, linocut, chasing, and made wooden furniture. He painted icons and made the metal covers for them himself. Everything that came out of his hands was made solidly and with artistic taste. He could sense beauty and wanted it to bring joy to others. Day after day, year after year, this handsome man adorned the life around him. After him remained sets and costumes for Youth Theater productions, artistic designs for district sports and cultural events, portraits of fellow villagers and landscapes of his native land, as well as a crucifix and icons in the Uva church of St. John of Kronstadt.

Spring Flood

Like the spring swell of rivers, Vladimir Kuznetsov’s paintings spilled beyond the boundaries of his settlement during his lifetime. They can be found in museums and private collections in Izhevsk, Kazan, Yekaterinburg, Ulyanovsk, and Moscow. His first solo exhibition took place at the Saratov Officers' House in 1971, since at that time the artist was serving in the Armed Forces. Kuznetsov held his first exhibition in his home settlement in the year he got married, in 1976. He repeatedly participated in republican exhibitions, was awarded a first-degree diploma at the All-Union Festival of Amateur Artistic Creativity of Workers and a bronze medal at VDNKh USSR. Kuznetsov’s last solo exhibition during his lifetime opened on October 17, 2000 in Uva. Nearly 60 watercolors, arranged into a thoughtful exposition, revealed the true scale of his artistic talent. Vladimir Petrovich, due to illness, did not attend the opening in person and only saw the recording. In the last weeks he could no longer hold a brush. He simply sat in front of his works, looked at them, and thought. It is likely that he gave all his feelings and all his life energy to his beloved watercolors…

There is not a person in the settlement who would not remember or know the artist Kuznetsov. His works are permanently exhibited in the local art gallery. Since 2010, the Uva Children's School of Arts has regularly held an annual watercolor biennial — the Interregional Festival-Exhibition "To the Sounds of Watercolor," dedicated to the memory of Vladimir Kuznetsov. Among the watercolors presented at the Izhevsk Exhibition Center "Gallery" there are several that the artist’s family is showing for the first time. The most complete catalog of the artist’s works is available at https://vpkuznetsov.ru.

Vladimir Petrovich Kuznetsov did not join the Union of Artists of Udmurtia and held no honorary titles, but he was well known and respected among colleagues, museum professionals, and experts. Art historian Valentina Gartig once wrote about him: "Without lamenting his fate, far from cultural centers, and, like everyone else, burdened by daily routine, he nevertheless found time for his beloved pursuit, creating on paper his world — piercingly bright and peacefully serene!"