More than eight decades after standing in front of Vladimir Dimitrov's easel - the Master, Boyanka Arakchieva is once again posing with apples in her hands, BNR reported. The 90-year-old woman met her childhood image at the City Art Gallery “Petko Zadgorski“ in Burgas, where the painting “Girl with Apples“ is among the leading works in the collection.
The portrait was created in 1943 in Arakchieva's native village of Shishkovtsi. At the time, she was a schoolgirl. For several days – October 1 to 5 – every morning she was released from the first class so that the Master could work in natural sunlight.
Arakchieva remembers that the artist carefully observed the light and kept both the people and the fruits in his paintings illuminated in a certain way.
„Whether he was painting a person, an apple, a grape - it had to be illuminated by the sun's rays. He stood with his back to them and took in the image. He told me that he took off his shoes barefoot, that this dew recharged him best“, says Boyanka Arakchieva.
She describes the Master as a person who used diminutive words and looked into small details. Her memory of working on the portrait is connected not only with the poses, but also with the way the artist presented his works to people.
On village holidays, the Master would arrange the finished paintings without frames near the walls of the houses. This way, every passerby could look at them. On one of these occasions, Boyanka stood next to her portrait and heard neighbors exclaim that this was „our Boyanka“.
On September 22 of this year, Boyanka Arakchieva turned 90. Her encounter with the painting in Burgas brought together in one frame the childhood image from 1943 and the woman who had preserved it in her memories throughout her life.
“The master will remain like a saint, sent from heaven, somewhere to paint the beauties of Kyustendil, the beauties of Shishkov, the maidens and brides and children of Kyustendil“, says his emblematic model.