Baba Yaga

Alexander Maslov is the talented Fedoskino artist who is able to make the magic world of a Russian fairy-tale come true. His favorite heroine of a Russian fairy-tale is the forest witch, Baba-Yaga and he likes to depict this heroine in his unique compositions. Alexander is the oldest brother in the Maslovs family, his younger brother Vladislav is also well-known talented artist. 
Baba-Yaga is the oldest character of the Slavonic mythology. Originally Baba-Yaga was the goddess of death; people imagined her as a woman with the snake tail who guarded the entrance into the other world and accompanied the souls of dead people into the Kingdom of the Dead. Baba-Yaga is the most famous figure in Russian fairy-tales that represents evil. It is a character of such fairy-tales as "Marya Morevna", "Princess Frog", "The Tale of Life Water and Youth Giving Apples", and many, many others. 
In this composition Baba-Yaga has gathered a full basket of poisonous mushrooms in the forest and now is having a rest near her wooden hut on chicken legs. She is accompanied by her servants: the black cat, the owl and forest birds. The composition is painted in a bright palette of oil paints. Gold metal powder shines through the oils in some parts of the composition and creates a source of light inside the hut on chicken legs. Round-shaped piece of mother-of pearl is used to create a sparkle of the full moon in the night sky. The ladybird painted on the basket and the spider sitting on his net behind Baba-Yaga look three-dimensional being painted on the pearl beads glued to the box's exterior.
The composition is framed with a gold ribbon. Stylized gold ribbons can be also found decorating the box's sides. The box's exterior imitates a stone color (golden spots cover the turquoise background). The box's interior is of three tones: yellow-green, pink and violet that change each other in turn. 
The box is constructed from paper-mache. A hinge is fastened to the left of the composition , and the box rests on a four legs. On the lid's interior a rectangular shaped piece of mother-of-pearl is glued; the title of the work ("Babulya" derived from Baba-Yaga), the artist's name and the year of 2010 is written on it.