Meet the Artist
Honoured Cultural Worker of the Russian Federation
City of Velikhy Novgorod, Russian Federation
Galina Kizhapkina is an accomplished Russian landscape and botanical artist and recipient of the high professional title, ‘Honoured Cultural Worker of the Russian Federation’ awarded by the President of the Russian Federation in 2005. She is a member of the Union of Artists of Russia and of the UNESCO International Association of Fine Arts. Her works are in museum collections all over Russia.
Galina specializes in water colour landscapes and botanical subjects but also paints portraits and still life in oil. She excels in the alla-prima technique (works completed in one sitting while the paint is still wet). Galina works from her studio in the city of Velikhy Novgorod, south of St Petersburg. In 2007 she was made an Honorary Citizen of the Novgorod Region.
Galina has participated in over eighty exhibitions in Russia and abroad and hosted over twenty personal exhibitions. Galina’s work was selected by the German and Chinese Embassies as part of an exhibition to represent Russian art at their German-Russian and Chinese-Russian Collaboration Months respectively.
Galina’s work upholds the Russian school of artistic realism founded in the mid-19th century by. Pavel P. Chistyakov and his famous students, Repin, Serov, Vasentsov and others. She acquired the Chistyakov school and teaching method from her late husband, Nikolai Lomtugin (Chistyakov-Savinsky-Kaplun-Lomtugin, see "Chistyakov School of Russian Realism" ), with whom she worked over 30 years.
Galina has taught art for more than 40 years using Chistyakov’s methodology. She teaches groups and individuals, including international master classes and workshops. Her students have achieved laureate status and won gold and silver medallions at 26 international art competitions, including over eighty prize positions at all-Russia and international events since 2003 alone.
Galina’s works exemplify simple, beautiful and evocative Russian themes. Her landscapes are ethereal, profound and full of life. Her studies and sketches are marvellous and free flowing - strokes of atmospheric light from a master's brush.