Birches By Maya Eventov
Posted by telecommatt on October 24, 2007
This past Sunday, I ended up in Stillwater, MN for lunch and coffee. The main street in ‘downtown’ Stillwater is filled with small restaurants, antique stores, and small boutique-style shops. At one point, I wandered in to an art gallery after being struck by a certain painting. Do you ever see something that you instantly know is miles superior to anything around it? On prominent display in the small gallery was a series of paintings done by Maya Eventov called Birches. Not being able to afford, well, anything that was on display in the gallery, I struck up a conversation with the young woman working there in order to learn about the artist.
Maya Eventov is Russian by birth and now lives in Ontario, Canada. Although her art training was rather traditional, these paintings are extraordinary in the way that she uses different size palette knives rather than brushes. The acrylic paint is layered very thickly and applied in short strokes giving the finished work an actual three dimensional texture. It works so well with the scenery in Birches! The tree bark comes alive and from a few feet back, where you can’t tell one stroke from another, there is a wonderful depth to the scene.
For the benefit of the aficionados out there, I won’t even pretend to know what I’m talking about when it comes to painting. And, yes, it’s off topic too. But I really enjoyed this series and thought a few of you out there might as well.
She doesn’t seem to have a website of her own, but you can read more about her and Birches here and here.
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Ian Curd said
I was in the city of Nottingham (England) last Sunday (4th November) when I happened upon a gallery with an impressive painting of birch trees in the window. On closer inspection I discovered it to be by Maya Eventov, and although I was not similarly affected by the companion pieces (technically brilliant but the wrong colour!!!) I found the painting of birch trees – entitled Autumn – to be very tempting. However, a £4500 it was well outside my price range and size wise it would have dominated my living room, but what a find! Hence my trawl of the net and your site and my comments. All I need to do now is win the lottery and I know what will be two of my first purchases. More wall space and that picture!!
telecommatt said
Ian,
How true, the lottery and more wall space! Thank you for taking the time to leave your comments!
Cheer,
Matt
carrie scott said
i saw it as well in canada and it was amazing and would love one, but it was $9,000 for the bigger size which i would want. Wish we could find it someone more reasonably. Any ideas?
Trader Zach said
The work is spectacular. My wife and I were in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin and walked into Galerie Matisse where we found Evantov Birches. The selection was terrific and after choosing one we were delighted to find the gallery delivers, & hangs! Everyone Loves the work and we are very glad we made the purchase. While her paintings are rather pricey I felt the prices in this gallery were very fair and certainly less than what you are referring to. So theres an idea!
Adriana Rietveld said
I was attracted by this stunning painting in the window of the Forrest Gallery in Guildford.
The birches really came forward.
These birches are shown in Fine Art Focus, issue 26, with the following text:
Maya Eventov uses a distinctive technique which combines impasto oil painting and etching.
By building up each composition over several weeks she creates a mesmerising vocabulary of
texture and nuance.
These atmospheric forest scenes vibrate with light and colour, and call to mind a stained glass
window lit from behind by dazzling sunlight.
Patty said
My husband and I just purchased one of the birch paintings at a gallery in Middleton, WI. I was lured into the gallery by a very large, colorful painting that was visible from the sidewalk. In the end, we decided that that particular painting had too much red in it, but the gallery had two more of her birch paintings, one of which was a bit more subdued, like autumn leaves not quite yet at peak. It fits in better with our decor and the feeling we want for the room. I cannot take my eyes off it. It has transformed the room totally. I will also admit that at $4000, this is by far the most I’ve ever paid for something to hang on the wall. But it’s a lot more fun than the $20,000 we paid for new roof and soffets!