Mezen painting
Graphic two-colour painting in red ochre and black soot on light wood: rows of horses and deer among geometric patterns. It took shape on the lower reaches of the Mezen River in the Arkhangelsk Region.
Mezen painting is also called Palashchelye painting, after the village of Palashchelye on the Mezen. The earliest dated distaff with this painting is from 1815, and similar motifs appear in 18th-century manuscript books from the area.
The pattern is applied to unprimed wood in two colours: red ochre and black soot. It is built on discs, diamonds, crosses and stars, among which run friezes of schematic horses and deer; birds painted with a single stroke are often placed at the top.
Makers worked with a wooden stick, the “tiska”, and a capercaillie or black grouse feather. They painted distaffs, ladles, boxes and bratina loving cups; everyday scenes and inscriptions with the maker’s name and the date are sometimes found on the backs of distaffs.
Today Mezen painting is applied to chopping boards, caskets, birch-bark containers and tableware.
Photographs
Mezen painting 
Mezen painting 
Mezen painting