On the Arbat, as the street performers themselves put it, there was a raid. The portrait painters, who had been working on the street for years, were detained last weekend and taken to the local police department. “It all started in the morning, when I just started laying out the easel, and my colleague didn’t even start to take out anything,” the artist, who has been working on the Arbat since 2000, told Gazeta.Ru. —

The police came up and started saying that we were painting for the purpose of selling, that is, we were engaged in illegal trade. Although what they give us can only be called alms, not money.

All our belongings were taken away at the police department: easels, brushes, pencils, paper. They forced us to sign statements that we did not give. And they issued a fine of 2.5 thousand rubles. We are going to sue with these signed false testimonies.”

Konovalova has been painting at VDNKh since 1996, then for a year and a half she made portraits on the streets of Barcelona, ​​and has been working on the Arbat since 2001. And for all the time, according to her, there have never been conflict situations with. “There were attempts to approach some bandits, they ask: “do you have a “roof”?” Then I take off my hat, hand it to him: here is a “roof”, put a hungry artist on a sandwich,” she says.

The artist adds that there is little money to be made this way: “Prices for a portrait are determined by agreement, but they have not changed since 2001. And now we generally sit for weeks waiting for clients, no one comes: the crisis.

The situation could be saved by a system of patents issued to street performers and “brush and pencil workers”. They started talking about its introduction last fall, the Moscow City Duma held several round tables, but the process stalled. According to the Chairman of the Commission on Culture and mass communications Evgeny Gerasimov, this happened at the level of municipalities.

“Everything must be according to the law. Under current legislation, the police have the right to drive both musicians and artists, unfortunately. The introduction of patents should be the initiative of municipal deputies, but they are still dragging it out and not showing it. Municipalities, local residents and artists can not agree among themselves.

We offered artists to become individual entrepreneurs until the patent system is put into effect, but they apparently see that they have stopped chasing and decide that everything will be fine even without individual entrepreneurs, ”

Gerasimov explained to Gazeta.Ru.

At the same time, the head of the cultural commission emphasizes that “the Arbat managed to become a home for artists, and taking away their home is nonsense and disrespect. You can't expose the Arbat."

In turn, the head of the Arbat municipality says that they have long been in favor of patents, and the introduction of the system is delayed due to the bureaucratization of the legislature. “We have more than 100 km of pedestrian zones, which should be a workplace for artists. Anyone who comes to Moscow should see that it is here that the cultural capital, and not in St. Petersburg, he told Gazeta.Ru. —

With musicians everything is more difficult. Arbat is a residential street, here the echo is such that you sneeze at the Prague restaurant, but you can hear it at the theater.

So the places for artists, artists should be determined by the residents themselves. We are all waiting for the reaction of the Moscow City Duma, let them at least say whether they are introducing these patents or not.”

The expulsion of artists from the Arbat was another step in the operation to clean up the street. Recall that at the end of last spring there were several arrests of street musicians. All of them were charged with the same unauthorized trade - however, what the musicians could trade with remained unclear. On July 2, the artists sealed their mouths with black tape in protest. Also in May last year, another symbol of the Arbat, second-hand booksellers, disappeared. They ran out of a trade permit, and the city did not renew it, promising to play this right later at the auction. Four Bookinist shops and street stalls were closed.

Thus, the street loses its historical function, says Zoya Kharitonova, Honored Architect of Russia, chief architect of the Arbat. “When I was designing the street, and the preparation took 10 years, I studied all the functions of the Arbat since 1900. There has always been a cultural and educational mood. Students and professors rented rooms. There were up to 30 bookstores there. So food and books were always on the Arbat, ”she told Gazeta.Ru.

According to Kharitonova, the Arbat is still the only popular pedestrian zone in Moscow, and this is largely due to artists and artists. “About 600,000 people walk down the street every day, these are phenomenal numbers! I once got into a conversation with one artist, she used to be an architect, she worked, but pictures feed better.

When I stood on the Arbat, everything sold well, once I bought two paintings. And I stood on the Kuznetsky Most - no one came up, not a single painting was bought.

The street is dead, there is no need to be there, if only the path to the metro is shortened. On the first floors there is nothing that would attract people, too expensive shops. And no one lives, in the evenings not a single window is lit. The same situation with Nikolskaya street, Stoleshnikov and Kamergersky lanes. And the Arbat is residential and alive. There is not a single pedestrian street in Europe without portrait painters, this is an inseparable part of it.”

If the claims of local residents to the musicians can still be understood - after all, listening to Tsoi's hits day after day is tiring, then what the artists could interfere with is completely unclear, Kharitonova is surprised. However, a compromise option may be the organization of specially allocated places for the work of portrait painters. In particular, it is planned to build several sheds for them in the Prague area until the situation with patents moves forward.

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"Street art won't end world poverty, but it can make you think and smile."

Street drawings have long crossed the line when they were considered only vandalism and did not carry anything reasonable, kind, eternal. No, of course, there are senseless and most often mediocre "tags" and will not go anywhere. But modern street art is already much deeper and wider than just tags, an expression of protest or one's position. It has grown and assumed, among other things, a social function.

website prepared a list of artists whose work makes cities more beautiful, and people a little better and happier.

His project "Living Walls" is known far beyond the borders of the country; his works are regularly included in the world's best street art collections. Good-eyed creatures of Nikita, organically inscribed in space, playing with the shape of the walls, already exist in many cities of Russia: in his native Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Perm, Kazan and so on.

Alexey Menshikov

Alexei Menshikov, an artist from Penza, decorates the streets of his city with funny drawings, successfully fitting them into the surrounding landscape. His positive characters will not leave anyone indifferent and charge with positive for the whole day.

This talented street artist from Russia is an adherent of a surrealist style that permeates all his work with a thin thread. The subjects of the works are very diverse - from drawing representatives of the heroes of subcultures and various phenomena to surrealistic and fairy tale motifs.

Slava PTRK, an artist from Yekaterinburg, is a real experimenter who often chooses strange and unusual objects for his works. All his drawings and installations are an encrypted message, a call to turn on the imagination and think about the problems of our time.

Another artist from Yekaterinburg, famous for his unusual and topical works, often associated with political events.

Moscow street artist Zhenya 0331C (Ozzik) is used to comparing what is painted in his hometown and on the streets of the world. This helps him realize why he creates his work. For Ozzik, street art is a complete art, an opportunity to convey feelings or emotions through what you can do.

A young, productive and damn talented graffiti artist from St. Petersburg. He works in the technique of photorealism and creates bright, unforgettable characters.

Andrey Adno was born in 1986 and now lives in Kaliningrad. The artist claims that graffiti has never been his main source of inspiration. He is close to the old school of graphic design, the Soviet poster and everything that balances on the verge of graffiti and conventional art.

Morik & Aber are tough Siberian guys with vast drawing experience behind their backs. Turning their hobby into work, and creating masterpieces where they are asked.

Portrait to order, one of the most lucrative ways to earn money for the artist, if not the most lucrative. Artists draw a portrait from a photo to order, caricatures, collages, and earn good money. And during the holiday season, street artists can earn several thousand a day.

Portrait to order

As I already wrote in the article "", portrait to order- the most famous way of earning for the artist. Portrait painters work on the streets of many cities, painting portraits in different techniques: from oil paints before simple pencil. The so-called "holiday season" is especially profitable, when many tourists come to the seas. That's when the street artist, who paints on the embankment under the Crimean sun, begins to earn real money.

But not only on the seas you can earn really good money. In many cities, there are streets where portrait painters paint. The most famous of them is the Arbat in Moscow.

Caricatures, cartoons and a portrait to order are willingly ordered by tourists and just passers-by.

But to get to the most "bread places" young artist not so easy. In order to become a street artist and draw a portrait to order, you need not only to be able to perfectly draw a person from life, but also to stand out with your drawing style, because the competition, as you probably already understood, is huge.

If you are a young artist, and for some reason it’s “not an option” for you to draw on the street, then let’s look at another way - portrait from photo to order.

Portrait from a photo to order

If street artists draw a portrait to order from nature, then there is another category of artists who draw, caricatures, cartoons and portraits from photographs.

Of course, if you live in a small town, then you will not have much competition. But there is another side of the coin - not a large population, less demand. Then, many artists send a portrait from a photo to order by mail and advertise their services through social networks.

The prices for such services are very different, and directly depend on how much a young artist appreciates his work. Speaking objectively, the price is not always adequate to the quality, or vice versa, a low price for an excellent portrait.

If you are not very good at drawing a person from nature, or do not want to be a street artist, then drawing a portrait to order from a photograph is a great way to earn money.

Prices on the Old Arbat

On this page. due to numerous requests from visitors to our site, we decided to place information on the prices of caricatures on Stary Arbat. Because they call us very often and ask: "Are you sitting on the Arbat? And how much are the prices there now?" So, therefore, the information that we will lay out is only approximately advisory in nature. We must proceed from the fact that there is simply no single price list on Stary Arbat. Of course, artists very often keep uniform prices so as not to interfere with each other's work, but someone can raise the price, and someone lower it slightly, depending on how much they need money.

(portrait from photograph. art. Valery Belozerov)

For example, the usual standard black and white cartoon will be drawn for you for 500 rubles near the Prague restaurant, and for 300 near the Vakhtangov Theater. Near the museum of A.S. Pushkin, you can draw a cartoon for 150 rubles, but the quality of such work will be many times inferior to the one you make at the Prague restaurant. Simply say you for 150 rubles. get such a daub that you just throw it into the garbage chute the next day.

You can draw a caricature for free if you stumble upon a clown on the Old Arbat who arranges a "cartoon show", that is, in line, he cheats everyone for free.

(portrait from a photograph, artist Valery Belozerov)

AT this case it must be borne in mind that this is just a show, and the drawing that is drawn to you is only part of the performance, clowning, and does not contain any artistic value, and therefore is drawn for free.

(portrait from a photograph, artist Valery Belozerov)

(portrait from a photograph, artist Valery Belozerov)

In order not to be offended by the ineptly spent money on the Old Arbat, do not lose vigilance. Don't forget that the moment you approach an artist, a psychological factor kicks in. You can simply become a victim of the psychological manipulation of another person. Never settle for the first price offered to you, be sure to bargain. For the most part, the artist will always give you a discount. After all, you always have the right to refuse poor-quality work.

(portrait from a photograph, artist Valery Belozerov)

(portrait from a photograph, artist Valery Belozerov)

Usually good masters, always take more for work than those who draw mediocre. Therefore, if you are offered too low price, better think before agreeing to pose for the artist. Then a conflict situation may arise in which victory may not always be on your side.

(pastel portrait, artist Valery Belozerov)

Holiday artist

Especially before the holidays, many organizers specially go to the Old Arbat to hire a caricaturist to animate a corporate celebration. Of course, you can find a specialist on the Internet, on the relevant sites, but many do not trust the Internet, as there are many scammers there. It is better to meet a person in person, to see his work. Maybe this is not without meaning, since on search, for example, in Yandex, all the first places have long been captured by intermediaries, which they disguise as artists' websites. So, at least by hiring a person directly, you will save 50 percent of money. Even artists, when transferring an order to their colleagues, charge them 30 percent of the amount of the customer. At the same time, the most orders are from those artists who draw the worst, as they go to draw for any money.

Group caricature from nature (artist Oksana Belozerova)

Therefore, think for yourself when looking for someone through second hands. The search result may not always be satisfactory.

Caricature from a photograph, art. Oksana Belozerova

Caricature from a photograph, art. Oksana Belozerova

If you are interested in our work, call or write to us! 8 915 0475473 Valery 8 903 2960536 Oksana.

No more drawings on the main pedestrian street in Moscow?

"What to do?" - the street artists of the Arbat seriously thought about this eternal question after several of their brothers in the brush were detained by the police. Easels, sketchbooks and brushes were confiscated from the artists, and an administrative fine of 2,500 rubles was issued. They promised to return the inventory after payment. The artists were indignant: how is it, we have been drawing here for years, and now suddenly that’s enough ?! - and gathered on " people's council". To be or not to be artists on the Arbat, found out "MK".

One o'clock. On the street - minus 11. Street artists gather near the restaurant "Prague". The Arbat musicians, who have considerable experience in fighting for their rights to work on the most famous pedestrian street of the capital, are also in a hurry to support them. Soon, at the beginning of the Arbat, a gathering of 20-30 people will form, not counting the press and 5-6 policemen. The artists, however, do not at all want to turn the council into a rally. Although one of the musicians is trying to rally, the masters of the brush ask him not to force the situation.

We just wanted to discuss the situation face to face, and not by phone, to decide what to do, - artist Vladimir Dotsoev, one of those who were recently detained by the police and fined, tells MK. But it looks like it won't work today.

Indeed, the artists are not up to it, and the musicians who ate the dog in defense of their rights are adding fuel to the fire. The latter have been repeatedly complained about - mostly by local residents because of the loud music (many use amplifiers). But there were no special claims to artists before - the pencil does not make noise. Moreover, as Vladimir Dotsoev explained to us, “several years ago, a response was received to a request to the mayor's office: artists working on the streets of Moscow are not subject to licensing.”

Artists have long been the hallmark of the Arbat: in 1986, after reconstruction, the street became a pedestrian street, and they almost immediately took a liking to it. Over time, painters began to be perceived as an integral attribute of the old street. But lately there has been talk of streamlining their activities. In 2015, the Moscow City Duma began to discuss a bill on the introduction of patents for street portrait painters and musicians, as well as on the installation of special stands on the Arbat (similar to those that were placed on Krymsky Val). But, despite the fact that this year the bill is going to be adopted, there is no clarity with it, and according to the artists, they are kept in the dark about this. How much the patent will cost, how the zones will be divided and how to issue a license - is still a mystery shrouded in darkness.

Nobody discussed anything with us,” Dotsoev continues. - They just came and took away without explaining the reasons. Moreover, they took me not to the police, but to the council, arrested things and issued a fine. They issued a decree that we offered our services in the wrong place and took money for it. Although we just stood there, in 17-degree frost we did not draw anyone.

- Are you ready to make yourself a patent, as proposed by the upcoming law on patenting "self-employed" citizens?

It depends on how much it will cost ... We don’t go out every day, we come when we have time. And not so much to work, but to communicate, draw. Previously, no one said anything against us, but then they kicked us out. One artist was generally accused of organizing a rally - due to the fact that two or three people gathered around him to watch the drawing process. If we are offered to work legally, we are all for it. If they want us to register ourselves as private entrepreneurs, then explain how and what. Previously, they didn’t touch us, but now they kicked us out without saying under what article. One summer we were invited to the council to discuss everything, we came, but no one came to us. We are ready for dialogue...

The administration of the Arbat district refused to comment on the situation for MK. Officials also did not come out to the artists. The result of the meeting was the decision to assemble an initiative group and go to the prefecture in order, firstly, to establish a document on the basis of which the artists were fined, and secondly, to find out what to do next and what they want from the artists. In the meantime, the artists will not risk going to the Arbat. After the meeting, the pedestrian street was really empty. Whether portrait painters will appear on it again is not clear.