"Evening Flurries"
20 x 24
By Alexei Butirskiy

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“Evening Flurries”

Mansurovsky Alley in downtown old Moscow is not far from “Lion's Gate.” People are going home on a streetcar in the darkening evening shadows. The weather reminds me of my worry-free childhood. I still love to walk in the falling snow to this day. When it is not snowing I like to imagine that it is, and I try to make everyone believe it in my paintings!

I love winter, perhaps because I was born in February, and birthday times always have special meaning. Maybe also because it is close to the New Year, with renewed hopes and resolutions, and Christmas with all its exciting expectations. Or maybe I just love it when it snows! When I was a little boy I liked to examine snowflakes with their myriad shapes, and feel them disappear on my warm tongue. Of course I would try to design and build little sculptures and figures of snow with my father and my brother Dmitri. Although we were twins our snow creations were completely different. There was my world, and there was his. We used snowballs to knock down icicles, the tastiest thing on the winter's menu.