The Ripple Effect

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

Ripples 1901 Arkady Rylov

Dropping a small stone into the water seems to be a metaphor for the artist’s work—casting a soft outward ripple through the creation of an artwork and hoping that ripple becomes a wave of creative energy. Although it may seem to always be an act of faith, there is one certainty—the connection of the artist to Nature and the courage to create is a positive force in the world.

We wish you all a most creative 2025 and leave you with this work of art called “Ripples” by Arkady Rylov (1870-1939), a Russian historical and landscape artist. Rylov studied in St. Petersburg under Archie Kuindzhi. Later, he taught his own students at the Academy of Arts with live animal models, bringing rabbits, cats, dogs, wild birds and squirrels into the studio without cages. He received the title of Academician of Painting in 1915, ranking him as one of the founders of Soviet landscape painting. His Socialist Realism works of art were ac…