OTMA

My fascination with Russian history began at a young age after seeing "Rasputin and The Empress" with the Barrymores on WGN's late night movies. My 7th grade history teacher got me totally hooked and somewhere in the Chicago Public School System archives is my prize winning history project of my drawings of Russian clothing. My best friend Carol and I would go to the local bookstore on Saturdays in hopes of finding biographies of the tsars. (we were such nerds!!!) In high school I did 30 inch charcoal drawing of Grand Duchess Marie for a history final and an etching I did based on "The Snow Queen" fairy tale had a very Imperial Russian twist.

As we got older, interest did not wain. While Carol visited Russia many times and sent me a piece of the Winter Place (bad Carol!!!), I would try new art techniques inspired by the faces of the last Grand Duchesses, the beautiful daughters of Nicholas II who were 4 of the most photographed royals of their day. The girls letters were often signed "OTMA", a combined signature of their names - Olga, Tatania, Marie and Anastasia.

In recent years the book "Tsar" by Peter Kurth, inspired me and the result was this pencil drawing...

In 1999, taking a break from drawing greyhounds, I did a series of 4 small watercolours based on photos of OTMA.

I was pleased with the results as I'm not all that great when it comes to working in colour. On a whim I e-mailed these to Carol who drove me crazy for the next 5 years begging me for them. Our fascination for all things Russian had remained.

Kathy