Paintings from nostalgic childhood

Yerkir.am
March 23, 2007

The personal exhibition of painter Artur Khachatrian was launched at
Narekatsi Art Union on March 16. The paintings showed the landscapes
of Aragatsotn region ` memories from the childhood, narrow streets,
small village houses, bright colors that are closer to the childhood
when you look back at it from the distance of passed years.

`I painted the village of my childhood on these paintings. Even though
I was born in Yerevan I have always felt a connection with the
village. I spent my childhood in Agarak and Byurakan villages, and
these are the villages I have painted,’ Khachatrian says.

The paintings are done in water colors and oil. The images are
saturated as if the village is the continuation of the sky and the
village of the childhood is merged with the sky. The images seem to be
real: the painter has worked in each of the streets, in every gorge.

The trees are blue and yellow, green or all colors. The mixture of
colors seems to be the main message of the exhibition ` the sky and
the earth together, with no limits.

`I am tired of urban landscapes. I see walls, closed spaces every day.
Village landscapes are different ` they inspire peace,’ Khachatrian
says.

The mountain landscapes, the river, the rocks seem to be the
continuation of childhood. They merge memory with the present, and the
saturated colors sway you with the interplay of dream and reality.

Artur Khachatrian succeeded in created the memory of his
childhood. And his paintings are so subtle that they restore childhood
memories in the hearts of everyone who looks at them.

By Gohar STEPANIAN