Dolski was painting, accompanied by Chen Min. Photo by Hu Jiusi, a reporter from the Yangtze River Daily
Chen Min, a Chinese girl living in Wuhan. Pavel Dolskiy ( Pavel Dolskiy ) , a painter from St. Petersburg , Russia.
Because of an exhibition, Chen Min admired Dolsky, who taught plaster sketching on the teaching CD for 10 years. After 10 years of waiting, the idol no longer stays on the disc. Later, the two men, who were 10 years apart, entered the temple of marriage in St. Petersburg.
Today, his daughter is almost two years old, and Dolsky, who works and lives in Wuhan, has also ushered in his high-productivity period in recent years, and the city life in Wuhan has also appeared in his works.
An exhibition changes lives
Dolsky is painting. Photo by Hu Jiusi, a reporter from the Yangtze River Daily
At 3:00 a.m. on December 29, 2021, Dorskey got up early as usual and went into the studio to continue the creation of a Hanfu work.
Dorski created nearly 40 works in 2021. Recently, he became obsessed with Hanfu and joined a Hanfu society with his wife Chen Min to watch Hanfu exhibitions and listen to Hanfu lectures.
Hanfu paintings by Dorseki. Source: Chen Min
The love story of Dorskey and Chen Min began more than a decade ago.
In 2006, 18-year-old Chen Min was a sophomore in a high school in Wuhan. At the end of October of that year, the "Exhibition of Russian Realist Paintings in the Second Half of the 19th Century" was exhibited at the Wuhan Museum. Chen Min saw the exhibition banner hanging at the entrance of the museum and walked in involuntarily. This inadvertent choice changed her life.
Chen Min's hometown is in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, and his parents came to Wuhan very early to do business; Chen Min was born in Wuhan and later studied in Wuhan.
According to her parents' plans, Chen Min studied science in high school, studied economics in college, and took over the family business after graduation. But this painting exhibition hit the young Chen Min and also broke the life that her parents had planned for her.
The exhibition brought together more than 100 paintings from several museums in Russia, and Chen Min, who saw the exhibition for the first time, was strongly shocked. She took bread and water with her and went to the exhibition for 3 consecutive days.
At the end of the painting exhibition, Chen Min purchased a full set of teaching CDs recorded by the Repin Academy of Fine Arts in Russia and watched them repeatedly at home. Dorski taught plaster sketching, with a paintbrush in his hand, and he looked handsome and confident in a red sweater, and Chen Min was deeply attracted to him.
According to the information attached to the CD-ROM, Dolsky received the Red Doctorate certificate of the Repin Academy of Fine Arts in 2002 (at the age of 24) (with excellent grades in all subjects) and is the most talented young artist at the Repin Academy of Fine Arts in Russia. This plaster sketch, which he carefully created in 8 hours, is a rare plaster sketch treasure. The teaching CD-ROM records the entire process of this extremely influential creation.
Chen Min decided that she would transfer from a science class to an art class, and she would take the academy of fine arts. Her mother said that she was thinking wildly, "Without a little foundation in painting, do you dare to switch from science to fine art?" For this reason, my mother did not speak to her for 3 days. Chen Min finally persuaded his father to stubbornly give up science and transfer to art.
Wait 10 years for an appointment
Chen Min and Dolsky. Photo by Hu Jiusi, a reporter from the Yangtze River Daily
A painting exhibition and a teaching CD-ROM, Chen Min regards Dolsky as his idol and hopes to create works as good as his.
From the science class to the art class, Chen Min, who has no foundation in painting, starts with the most basic exercises, but Chen Min's works are often praised by the teacher, "You have a talent for painting." Later, in the college entrance examination, Chen Min was admitted to the Hubei Academy of Fine Arts as he wished.
After graduating from the Hubei Academy of Fine Arts, Chen Min followed her mother to do a clothing business in Tianjin and went to Suzhou to teach painting. In 2015, Chen Min returned to Wuhan and opened a studio.
In the cabinet of the studio, there is the set of teaching CDs that Chen Min bought in 2006. Every time a Russian came to the studio, Chen Min would take out the disc, point to Theolsky in the photo and ask, "Do you know him?" ”
I asked this for more than a year, and I don't know how many people I asked, until 2016, when a painter who graduated from the Russian Repin Academy of Fine Arts came to the studio, and Chen Min took out the disc again.
The Russian painter said to Chen Min: "Of course, he is the legend of our Repin Academy of Fine Arts. This made Chen Min overjoyed. After 10 years, her idol is no longer just on disc.
The painter told Chen Min that Dolsky had twice been awarded the title of "Outstanding Young Artist" in All Russia. It was also through this painter that Chen Min got Dolsky's contact information.
Over and over again, Chen Min wrote the text message and deleted it, repeatedly revising it, she did not know how to express the emotions of the past 10 years. After the text message was sent, Chen Min applied for a visa to Russia and bought a ticket to St. Petersburg. She's going on a date she's been waiting for for 10 years.
From St. Petersburg to Wuhan
Dolsky is on the Yellow Crane Tower. Photo by Hu Jiusi, a reporter from the Yangtze River Daily
In July 2016, at Pulkovo International Airport in St. Petersburg, Chen Min met for the first time with his idol Doldersky, whom he had worshipped for 10 years.
The Dolsky in front of her was as handsome and confident as she was on the disc. Before Chen Min could relax, Dolsky gave the Chinese girl who had come from afar a warm hug.
After a hasty goodbye to Dorsesky, Chen Min traveled to Russia alone. At a hotel in Yaroslavl, Chen Min chatted with a Russian girl who heard Chen Min's story, opened a social networking site to search for Dorskey's personal account, and translated a poem written by Dorsky into English to Chen Min: "Warm rain, shining pearl light, you hide in the dark depths, you live on the edge of the earth." I had no palace or white horse, only old coats and bags. But maybe one day, you'll find me on your own. ”
"It's you!" The Russian girl hugged Chen Min excitedly, "This is a fate given by God!" ”
After parting ways with Dolsky in St. Petersburg, Chen Min flew to St. Petersburg at regular intervals. When Dolsky came back to China, he also had more worries in his heart. A year after the two met, Dolsky and Chen Min were licensed to marry in St. Petersburg. After marriage, the two lived in St. Petersburg for a while.
Chen Min's mother once chatted with her son-in-law: "At that time, Chen Min was asked to go on a blind date, and he didn't go dead or alive, saying that he was waiting for you." I think she's crazy, who knows if it's really waiting. ”
In June 2018, Wuhan Liberation Park searched for painters for the theme oil paintings of the Martyrs' Deeds of the Soviet Air Force Volunteers, but has not found a suitable candidate. Chen Min learned from a friend and recommended Dolsky.
During his three months of painting in Wuhan, Chen Min served as Dolsky's translator and guide. This time in Wuhan, Dorskey decided to stay in Wuhan to work and live.
You have to know that Ersky Liuhan, some of his friends are anxious, "staying in Wuhan will affect your creation." His answer was: "In Wuhan, I can save a lot of unnecessary social interaction and devote myself to creation." ”
The years in Wuhan were a prolific period of Dorsky's creations, and he completed nearly 100 works, many of which were collected by national museums and individuals in China, Russia, Germany, Spain, France, and the United States.
The life of the city in the work
Dorsesky's well life in Wuhan. Source: Chen Min
Every day at 3 a.m., Dorski gets up to paint and works an average of 15 hours a day. He said: "Painting is a manual work, and hard work is more important than talent. ”
"No one in any country can be as diligent as Chinese." Dorskey often joked with Chen Min, "I am more like a Chinese in my bones." He remembers that when he was 6 years old, his mother took him to the bookstore to select books, and he chose a Chinese encyclopedia with ancient Chinese clothing and weapons. Since then, he has fallen in love with Chinese culture and buried his fate with China.
In March 2020, the daughter of Dolsky and Chen Min was born. Dorski watched the doctor wear a bulky protective suit to examine and deliver his wife, and when he returned home, he used the Wuhan doctor as a prototype to create an oil painting of "The Man Who Saved Lives". In the painting, a female doctor is slumped in the hospital corridor, tired and taking off her mask.
During the epidemic prevention and control period, Dorski frequently updated his social media accounts and filmed his life in Wuhan and posted them online. Some netizens watched the video posted by Dorskey and said, "I was shocked by the organizational strength of the Chinese government."
Dorsesky and Chen Min's daughter Anna is almost two years old, and her hukou has landed in Wuhan.
In the morning, Dorski would go downstairs to the hot dry noodle shop "prematurely", and the owner remembered his taste, "You love coriander, I'll give you more"; in the evening, Dolsky often joined the community's square dance team after a day's work and danced to the rhythm of the music.
Dorskey is familiar with the security guards in the community and the aunt who sells vegetables in the vegetable market, although the language is not common, but even if he talks and contrasts, he can sit on the side of the road and chat with others for a long time.
Wuhan became Dorsky's second home. He and Chen Min traveled through the streets and alleys of Wuhan, watching crayfish in the vegetable market in the summer and watching Wuhan people pour sausages and dried bacon in the winter, and these city life also appeared in his works.
(Zhang Weina, chief reporter of Changjiang Daily)
【Editor: Zhu Chenying】
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