Still Life by Viktor Bychkov

Recently I have seen paintings by Viktor Bychkov whose works were new to me. The artist works in various genres: portrait, still life, art landscape. I wanted to show you some of his still life and landscapes, that I liked more.

Viktor Bychkov was born in 1956 in town of Kovrov and was graduated from Saint Petersburg Art Academy in 1988.

 

He was a participant of many art exhibitions among them:
Joint art exhibition in Emeryville ,USA, California, 1992.
“EXPO-92”, Spain, 1992.
Exhibition of Russian Art Academy, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kazan, Krasnoyarsk, Russia 1995.
Exhibition “Seven Artists”, Vladimir, Russia 1997. 

Viktor Bychkov's works can be found in state museums of Russia, more of 50 art pieces are in private collections in a number of countries all over the world.

What is your opinion about such realistic art? Perhaps it reminds you somewhat a photo?  
Or a photo can not replace realistic art?

 

GBBD in Mid-April 2016

Today is another one gardeners' day when we show what bloom and grow in our gardens. First of all these are crocus, hyacinth and Leucojum, here they are:

They are so lovely sprouting among dry leaves and grass. When all around is brown these small vernal flowers are bright blue, white and pink.
Although flowers pleased me I was upset inspecting roses. Some of floribunda badly wintered and I found their stems with black spots and dead. I've cut them so long until I saw live stem. Now some of roses look like this:

                before pruning                                                                               after pruning

Despite of dead ones there are groundcover roses that are alive and have green branches. Here is groundcover "Swany":

Then I went to see berry bushes, it's a treat to see that small leaves are up from their green buds.

Meanwhile seedlings are growing well in my greenhouse, two weeks ago I had made some cuttings of Impatiens and sowed seeds of annual Dahlia.  They both grow fast on sunny shelves.  One impatiens has already roots  and started to bloom. What do you think - have I to leave this nice flower or better to cut it?

I have some tomato seedlings "St. Pierre" variety and I sowed celery in plastic glasses. I'm not sure if I have to plant these tiny celery seedlings in bigger pots or not, what is your experience?

That's all for now. What is growing and blooming in your garden in mid-April?

Alpine Plants

Now snow has almost completely melted and it's time to start a new garden season. Two years ago the old fence of my garden had been changed to new one and a dry place for planting appeared. Constantly coming back to this new spot I'd been thinking to create a small Alpine garden, how to better use it. One year has passed and I went to RHS Wisley, visited the Alpine garden, took a lot of pictures of alpine plants that Wisley's gardeners planted there.

I want to show some alpine plants from Wisley's and tell which of them I would like to grow in my 'alpine corner'. Many of them you know well, others are new to me and maybe to some of you too.
Campanula has wavy edged leaves, becomes covered with flowers of a deep violet-blue in late spring. It can be grown best in a light open soil in the sun. 

Astra alpinus is a suffrutescent plant, blooms in late May - mid-June, its leaves are oblong, don't die in the winter.  
Veronica schmidtiana is one of the most decorative Veronicas, it's undersized compact plant with many blue-mauve flowers, gathered in dense brush.
Viola is well known, it's native to the mountains of Europe, where it grows on calcareous rocks, but not at high altitudes.  
Sedum is growing in rocky crevices, I want to plant it on a gravel bed. Rhododendron dwarf is prostrate alpine plant, I grow the variety “Elvira” with deep red flowers. 
Сinerariа maritima is an annual, decorative plant.  Its leaves are pinnatipartite, covered with silvery felt, therefore the plant has a white and silver color.

Aquilegia saximontana is found at higher altitudes throughout the Northern countries grows in open meadows and woodlands. I have different shades of it. 
Primula is a delightful plant, easy in growing and is first in vernal flowering. 
Pulsatilla is called 'The Easter flower' is one of the oldest plants in cultivation, and also one of the easiest to grow.  
Marguerite is a small herbaceous perennial, it is a nice addition to alpine beds. I love growing it and its propagation is very easy - by dividing roots.

Did you ever think to create an 'alpine corner'? What is your opinion: is its maintenance easy or not? What flowers would you choose to plant there?