Found a beauty today...

Having about 20 minutes spare before I picked up the lad from school today I casually wandered into one of my (ever growing in number) local charity shops. I was immediately captivated by this lovely little watercolour - approx 6" x 8" image size. Not only impressed with the skill with which it was executed, I was also interested in the subject and the artist. I quickly got in touch my financial advisor to see if the £4.99 investment would indeed be an investment. Mrs Crazyfingers said yes and this fantastic little work of art was looking as if was mine. I then endured 10 minutes of the volunteer assistant (enter stage left 70 year old pink rinse darling of a granny) explaining to me that she wasn't an art critic and that she couldn't 'verify that it was an original'. I said 'It clearly is because...' and then an unexpected argument ensued. Eventually I handed over a fiver and jogged happily out of the shop.

I managed to pick up son from school in time and after a couple of pre-planned diversions (Library, shopping, mushroom picking etc.) I managed to get home, rustle up a culinary masterpiece and settle down to some pin point research on Google. Fantastic! So I now own a beautifully executed watercolour of a Russian Orthodox church built 300 years ago on the island of Kizhi in Onega.
The structure stands at nearly 32 storeys high and is primarlily built out of wood. No nails were used in it's making.The Island is one of Russia's top tourist attractions and is home to several unique hand built 'antique' timber framed stuctures. The 'Transfiguration Church' is actually made up of three seperate churches built within meters of each other which, when viewed from several angles (such as in this photo) appears as a massive singular structure. I have several friends working on finding out who the artist might be as there is no signature. There is however an interesting inscription at the bottom of the painting that has been erased (impression still in the paper) which reads HennpoBCKnn c.98 all the 'n' letters are the reversed Russian letter. So This photo is actually the real thing, pretty impressive I think especially as I had never even heard of this place yesterday. I have found a future destination to discover in my travels. I personally hope that we could explore every inch of the building however I suspect that access is very limited. Apparently the tour guides actually live in the buildings...imagine the fun you could have running around at night in this place!