Congratulations to J. Graney who placed the winning bid of $3,000 for March's auction painting "Playing the Accordion" estimated at $3,500- $4,000 and R. Rose who had the high bid of $1,250 to win March's second auction painting "Village Church" estimated at $2,500-3,000.

The response to our two auctions in March was strong, so we have decided to offer two auction pieces every month. For April, as our TWO auction paintings, we are pleased to offer pieces to celebrate Spring, "Dneprovskey Tune" by Grigory P. Matsegora and "Summer at the Dacha" by Nikolai Fyodorovich Sokolov.

Bidding begins at $250, followed by minimum bidding increments of $250. The auction will end Monday, April 30th at 6:00 pm.

BID FORM

The commonality of the two auction paintings for April may not be evident at first glance. A bright landscape and a genre portrait. Both works share Russian Spring as a theme. The season is a joyous time most everywhere. Rebirth, a new beginning. But in Russia with its heritage of long, long cold dark winters, spring is has a special significance. It is planting time. Dacha season, with long rich days of sunshine filled with friends, great food and vodka. Most every Russian keeps an almost genetic tie to the land, the soul of the Motherland. Even if home is a high rise in the center of Moscow, that link to the earth remains important to Russians.

In these two pieces you see the subtle joy of the season and the colors of home and youth. Optimism is in the air.

AUCTION PIECE #1

Grigory P. Matsegora, "Dneprovskey Tune"
15¼'' x 24½'', 1962, Oil on Board
Estimated Value, $3,000 to $3,500, Current Bid $1,000 C. Willoughby

Grigoriy Prokofievich Matsegora b. 1956

Honored Fine Artist of Ukraine

He was born in the Oleyniky Village (Ukraine). In 1956, Matsegpra graduated from State Art Collage in Kharkov. His teacher was M.M. Slipchenok. He has been participating in Regional, Republican, All-Union and foreign exhibitions since 1959. He is a member of the Ukrainian Union of Artists since 1970.

Matsegora is an Honored Fine Art Worker of Ukraine. His creative credo is a respectful attitude towards the Nature and, simultaneously, a free dialogue with it without any tendency to decorate it. Ukrainian villages, faithful and true love to his countrymen, with whom he survived during the hard Second World War years, the hunger in 1947 and tragic year under Stalin, Stalinism all of those factors determined his life and artistic position. The artist's paintings reflect people's culture of Ukrainian villages with their vividly expressed national features. The artist's paintings are exhibited in Museums and in some private picture collections in Ukraine and abroad.

AUCTION PIECE #2

Nikolai F. Sokolov, "Spring at the Dacha"
25¾'' x 29¼'', 1973, Oil on Canvas
Estimated Value $3,500 to $4,000, Current Bid $250

Nikolai Fyodorovich Sokolov b. 1921

Nikolai F. Sokolov was born in 1921 in the village Verkhnekokovskoye (now Sosnovka) of Ulyanovsk

Oblast, where he spent his childhood and all the following years of his life are connected with Orenburg, where the Sokolov family moved in 1936.

Nikolai Sokolov drew, liked music and liked to go to ballet school. He was so fond of his dancing classes that it became his profession. During the uneasy war years, he and his artist fellows brightened up with their art the severe life in the front.

Far East, Korea, Mongolia ... here, on military roads, the man, his character and heart opened up before him at the moment of the highest potential. The soldier's heroic deed astounded him. At that time he also became convinced about the necessary of devoting his creative gift to people. At the front, Sokolov continued drawing in between the concerts, therefore he was not broken down by misfortune when due to a front wound he had to leave the stage.

The 1947 year, Orenburg again, small clay houses heated by the sun, innumerable pigeon flocks over the town. And people, maybe not in soldier uniforms, but also performing their everyday labor heroic deeds. The artist wanted to live for them and to tell about them.

Wherever the artist was, in his studio, on an artistic trip, at rest -- a piece of paper and a pencil are always with him. Drawings, sketches and work-outs are collected in thick files in the artist's archives. Among them there is not only auxiliary material for his future works, but also finished graphical portraits of our fellow countryman. His simple unpretentious still lives and landscapes are imbued with a special sensation of happiness and admiration of his native environment.

Artists, like we all, are very different. Some are purposeful, others are given to contemplation, but Sokolov is impulsive by nature, easily carried away, apt to rises and falls. It is far from being easy for an artist to obtain stability and completeness of art, if the hand of an experienced teacher did not facet his talent. Nikolai Sokolov, feeling the lack of professional knowledge, entered in 1955 Tashkent Arts College, which he had to leave due to life circumstances after the third year. The artist did not give up. He studied anatomy at Orenburg Medical Institute, visited the studio of academician Neprintsev several times, held a life-class and drew a lot, doggedly mastering the artist's skill hour by hour, day by day.

One of the sides of his creative work soon revealed the interest in the person, sitting for him, and the deepest respect to this person. Whatever subject and whatever genre the artist turned to, he always craved for picturesqueness.

Of great importance for Sokolov were his trips to the artistic dacha, where the contact with the leading masters of Soviet Art (People's Artist of RSFSR Y. Kugach, A. and S. Tokarevs) broadened his mental outlook and helped him get more convinced about his conceptions and beliefs.

In the 1960s, the artist paid a lot of attention to the development of color and shade. The works of that period are very different, sometimes enhanced sense of color, sometimes restraint of similar shades. At the time Nikolai met recognition and success, joining the Artists Union of RSFSR and participation in zonal and republican exhibitions.

In early 1970, the artist's number of painting changed. The color became more reserved and the stroke less noticeable. The model's face became the center of composition of a half or a three quarters portrait, and sometimes a bust portrait. The landscape is rarely introduced in the portrait, which more often has an interior or just a colored background. The artist became more strict to the model, searching for the characteristic features.

As always, the workers of the village are the heroes of many of his works. The trip to village Konstantinovka of Sharlyksky district in 1980 was very fruitful for the artist. The landscapes, sketches and portraits drawn there are full of the artist's immediate impressions from life.

Nikolai Fyodorovich Sokolov took a strong liking to Orenburg region. The artist is interested in the people living there and in the history and nature of Orenburg. The workers of the town and villages, legendary Chapaev, flowers of the steppe and fast rivers -- this is what the artist narrates with his heart. He cordially and sincerely tells us about the most important things, about homeland, contemporary people and the beauty of life.