As a child, the painter Tatjana Palčuka-Rikāne, who lives on the Iecava side, dreamed of simply becoming a janitor or a kiosk seller. But it turned out that she studied art with our grandparents – Konrad Uban, Peter Postosta and academician Eduards Kalnins.
Tatiana is a magician. Good, of course. Her works entice, attract, enchant and make the frustrated smile. And most importantly, after meeting Tatiana’s art of light and sun, you can’t help but think. Maybe that’s her biggest spell – to make you think. About the order of things, the mission of art and eternal going upstream.
On the left – Tatjana Palčuka-Rikāne while painting. On the right – grandchildren in life and in a double portrait.
Photo: Dace Kokle / Pēteris Rikāns
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Dare to start over
“We started late with my Peter (Tatiana’s husband, art agent Peteris Rikāns – ed.) Walking all their nations. And we started to age though. And we started by participating in international competitions, which artists don’t like very much, because they think they mean something. But I looked at it calmly – no one there knew me and no one owed me anything. Right?” Standing in a wonderful, sunny workshop between fabulous works, the artist Tatjana Palčuka-Rikāne begins her story in an unusually modest way and without the slightest hint of conceit.
Tatjana Palčuka-Rikāne and her works.
Photo: Dace Kokle
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When the first recognition came, the first victories in the competitions and the first positive reviews from critics, Tatiana felt completely confused: “We received their first international award, it was so strange. I tell my husband, Peter, there is a whole world, so many good artists, and suddenly they saw me. But I have always been an extraordinary walker of my path. It’s always hard when you’re very different from others, it’s easier in a herd, shoulder to shoulder – what kind of Malachi we are, but one goes upstream … It’s not easy, and suddenly I find someone interesting here! ”
At the moment, the aforementioned spouse Pēteris cannot fail to intervene: “I have always been convinced that Tana is a good artist. Well, she also sometimes believes in it … ”
The picturesque interior of Tatjana Palčuka-Rikāne’s house.
Photo: Dace Kokle
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Laughing, Tatiana shows a “plaque of honor” – a whole wall in the workshop dedicated to diplomas and articles of honor for various international achievements: “It’s all Peter’s merit, I’m just sitting here and painting in my room – all the heaviest is on his shoulders.”
I naturally asked if the favor of critics and positive feedback were important to the artist herself. “It used to be important,” Tatiana says, a little bitterly after a short pause. “Then I was younger and, of course, I was waiting for someone to appreciate me. I waited so long, but Latvian art critics did not write about me. And when Ingrīda Burāne and I first wrote about me for the first time in Latvia, I organized an exhibition in Cēsis … Listen, I think I will die! Real. That was very, very important. “
The picturesque interior of Tatjana Palčuka-Rikāne’s house.
Photo: Dace Kokle
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The driver and pusher of the idea of leaving the world, of course, is Tatjana’s husband, art agent and guardian angel in one person Peteris Rikāns. He had noticed Tatiana’s works before and even bought a couple of paintings. But fate liked to bring the two together after the first not-so-happy marriages and create a strong union not only in life but also in art. And Peter has fulfilled some more quiet and seemingly unattainable expectations of Tatjana – she has come to her dream workshop, all that remains is to create!
Stream – never!
Tatiana has been a bit of a persistent pedestrian since she was a child. Asked about her childhood dreams, she surprises, admitting that she wanted to become anything but an artist, because she came from an ordinary family. Then little Tanya had two dream professions – either as a janitor (necessarily with a snow shovel with a metal edge at the bottom) or as a newsagent vendor (who kept the capes in a black plastic box). I wonder where the idea of painting was suddenly born, and, without telling anyone at home, Tatjana herself passed the documents and entered the prestigious “Rosenthal” or Janis Rozentāls Riga Art High School. Just asked my mom to buy professional watercolor paints. The path was decided further – the Latvian Academy of Arts.
Tatjana Palčuka-Rikāne workshop.
Photo: Dace Kokle
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“Without a good teacher, you will never do anything, you will not succeed,” Tatiana is firmly convinced. He has drawn a big lot in his life – think for yourself: to get to the teachers’ workshops of Imants Vecozols, Konrad Uban, Pēteris Postažis, Edgars Iltners and, most importantly, academician Eduards Kalniņš.
“If there is happiness at all, then to meet such people, and they all helped me. What did they see in me? There was nothing to see. But they still saw it, because Eduards Kalniņš himself did not accept the students at that moment, but he took me. Me – no such girl! Can you imagine? ” the artist’s thoughts swirl in the characteristic mystery of doubt and delight.
She is infinitely grateful to the great educators for the profession, the deep understanding of art, and the smart advice that Tatjana has embedded in her life vision: “Academician Kalnins said that you should not rush to applause, flowers and mascara! I do the same. ” But the most important contribution of teachers is to teach thinking: “This is the most important thing – thinking, not drawing, because you can teach anyone to draw, believe me, but think…”
Works by Tatjana Palčuka-Rikāne.
Photo: Dace Kokle
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And another piece of advice given by Professor Iltner has become a part of the artist’s daily life – to write down ideas.
Sometimes so many thoughts come to mind that you can’t sketch, and how easily they come in, just as easily they are gone. Iltner has said: “Tanya, articles, articles – at least in letters, along the points of the plan – the first, the second … I do the same. For example, I dreamed a series about musicians in Assisi, and I said – Peter, take and write, and dictate to him. I still have that leaflet saved. ”
Renaissance rebirth
I want to smile while watching Tatiana’s work. They can be read as a book – both open and closed – depending on the viewer’s own preparation, the previously accumulated body of knowledge or perhaps the desire to think. Each painting hides so many signs, symbols, interplay of images, subtext.
Tatjana Palčuka-Rikāne while painting.
Photo: Dace Kokle
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The artist’s great love is the Northern Renaissance, but she always emphasizes continuity and continuity – you do not live and paint in the 19th or another century, but do it in a modern way, in accordance with the people of this time. Like everything in this life, Tatiana says: “We think we are something new. No, we are all connected to the past, and there is nothing new – we just interpret. And the main thing is to know that you are not the first, that it did not start with you – in art and life in general. ”
“I like to travel so much,” Tanya becomes a little dreamy. “But when we return, it’s so good to be home again. And let there be a gray sky, and let a little sift the rain, and you feel it on your face – it’s wonderful. “
With Tatjana Palčuku-Rikāni met on the Iecava side: director Dace Kokle, cameramen Armands Rudzītis and Aivars Cāns, lighter Juris Lasinskis and driver Andris Limbaitis.
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