BABUSHKA (2019)Oil painting
by Natalia Nord

Babushka, or granny, is the mother of my mother. The very word babushka is a diminutive-hypocoristic form of the word baba – an ancient Russian word denoting a married woman. Pet suffix is added to emphasize just how special babushkas are to Russians. Due to the ongoing housing shortage but also as a tribute to tradition, quite often in Russia several generations live together under the same roof and babushkas play a very significant role in such extended families. My babushka lives together with my auntie and her husband, their son and his wife and their small daughter: 4 generations together.
When I was a little girl I spent all my summer holidays commuting between my grandparents, listening to their fables, playing in their gardens, fishing with my grandpas, helping my babushkas to stir fruit jams that would be eaten in winters. In the beginning of each summer visit both my babushkas were horrified at how I thinned down and became pale and were all too eager to wine and dine the poor child trying to stuff me with pies to the bursting point.
Out of four my grandparents I now have only one babushka, Larisa. She is 93 year old.

Details:

• Oil painting on Canvas
• One of a kind artwork
• Size: 40 x 50 x 3cm (unframed)
• Ready to hang
• Signed on the back
• Style: Unspecified
• Subject: People and portraits

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