”FETCHING WATER” is a Genuine Signed And Dated Ari Roussimoff Oil on Canvas Painting, measuring 18 x 24 inches. This most memorable artwork was originally conceived in the year 1970 as a soft Impressionistic winter scene of a Russian or Ukrainian village with no people in it. In the year 2003, the artist, guided by a strong and sudden inspiration, took the canvas and miraculously converted it into the dynamic and highly colourful composition of lively village activities that you see now! An incredible transformation!!! Rendered in beautiful shades of wintery snow-blues, icy whites together with warm tones of golden yellow, red and green, this is a charming fable-like portrayal of a group of typical Eastern European Watercarriers at work. This particular painting is quite exceptional in that it presents us with a genuine Winter Wonderland! The paint itself is applied with a rich thickness (impasto) that really conveys the spirit of the heavy snowfall. What fun! People ride their sleighs as children play around the snowman. It is as if a folk fable has magically sprung to life. The two central figures are depicted as true fairytale personalities. The town and village watercarriers were beloved fixtures in the old country. This canvas is rendered in a marvelously Expressionistic manner, richly textured and glowing in its in humanity and poetic colouring. One really gets a feeling here for the density of the big Russian winter. Generally powerful and colorful folk, these hard-toiling men and women watercarriers would fetch the water from the well to supply the townspeople in all seasons of the year. These historical watercarriers were favorites of the local children, who would enthusiastically scamper about as the watercarrier went about his chores. There is much mirth here. This is the same spirit that gave birth to a wealth of both Russian and Yiddish literature and culture such as the works of Gogol and Sholem Aleichem. This is the actual world that inspired the popular musical play, "Fiddler on the Roof". In reality, the village waterwarriers were indeed a much more truly visible character in Eastern European folklife than the imaginary fiddler, seated on a rooftop, that we have all come to know so very well.

"FETCHING WATER"

Oil on Canvas by Ari Roussimoff