Pictures that you want to touch

03/11/2005 Nune HAKHVERDYAN

People who deal with flowers are painters already. And when painters use flowers in their paintings, they create unique masterpieces of art. Alvina Barkhudaryan is an architect by profession. She paints pictures with the help of dried flower leaves. She covers graphical paintings with dried flower leaves in different colors.

Each flower leaf is like the touch of a brush. It is very interesting to watch her work on her pictures. She places the leaves on the picture, and then cuts some parts and then glues. She started to use a knife, glue and flowers in her art about twenty years ago. Alvina chose this technical approach in painting without any advice, she did it herself. This was a decision which was born from improvisation. When looking at her pictures it is difficult to understand how she could get this kind of color and relief and you just want to touch it. Very often the final appearance of the picture differs from the initial plan very much. Her imagination and mood don’t let her create a composition planned beforehand. “The most important thing is the mood that comes out of my pictures because my pictures are never the same as the planned ones. The colors are to decide the form of my pictures. For example when you are looking at a red leaf it seems to you that an apple will come out of this picture. But when you are looking at a blue leaf it seems to you that a lonely and sad ship is going to come out of that leaf”, -said Alvina.

With the purpose of making pictures Alvina collects flowers every summer and says: “the flowers I collect are never enough for me”. Her family members and friends help her to collect flowers. In order to find the flower she needs she may climb mountains or enter the yards of other people without any permission. “I work with pleasure when there are a lot of colors and pictures are painted in a better way. Sometimes I feel that something is missing and I walk back to look at it with new eyes”, -said Alvina. You feel the esthetical taste and mood of Alvina when looking at her pictures. Her pictures have been shown in different exhibitions in the world, especially in private collections. There is a gallery in New-York working with her and buys her pictures. Alvina’s new collection is going to be shown during the exhibition at “Art Bridge” bookstore/cafe on November the 1st. The theme of the pictures is the colors of autumn. The most important thing here is the colors, which will be reflected in different pictures with autumn fruit and in the mood of people walking on the streets of Yerevan. The pictures of Alvina create a very kind and good mood. You see how people feel protected under umbrellas in rain. And children run on the bank of the river with balloons in their hands and feel like the happiest creations in this world.