Stay in the picture

Plyos can rightfully be considered the prototype for the expression, “Eternal Rest”: its Volga embankments, green hills and neat little churches all help solidify the image. It feels like, at some point, a great artist slowly walked these parts and everything around asks to be put on canvas, on film or in a digital album of a smartphone. It’s all there for the taking!

So what if you can’t draw? There are other ways to leave your mark on the art. It remains only to find the artist…

How to stay in the picture? 

- You can get to Plyos by car or bus from Ivanovo;

- Although the city is not very large, it may take you several days to get around all the key attractions, including the Temple Mount and Mount Levitan;

- Studying the places loved by Isaac Levitan, choose a landscape whose hero you will become;

- Find a craftsman and schedule a meeting: @v.beregov helped us and we were very happy to work with him!

- While posing, sit down so that it is comfortable for you to hold this position while the artist works;

- Let the canvas dry and - that’s it, you’ve now been immortalized as the hero of a painting in Plyos!

A place of inspiration

Steeply running up the hills from the Volga, Plyos became a special source of inspiration for Isaac Levitan. The artist, inspired by a small but bustling town, painted several of his famous works there, but, alas, you will no longer find identical picture spaces in Plyos.

Levitan practically did not “write off” the surrounding reality, but only used some of its parts.

For example, ‘Above the Eternal Peace’: the church from the picture burned down and gave way to another and the two rivers around it did not exist at all.

That’s no reason to despair. Become an art historian for a day and try to discern all the details in the artist’s Plyos paintings. We’ll give you some hints: look up ‘Evening. Golden Plyos’, ‘Quiet Monastery’ and ‘Bark Grove’.