FRØSTRUP: Natalia Dolgova takes a ship from St. Petersburg to Kiel in Germany. In the suitcase are some clothes and her paintings, which she drags on board. From Kiel she goes to Hamburg, where she takes a bus to Denmark and the Kirsten Kjærs Museum in the small town of Langvad near Frøstrup in Thisted Municipality.
Once there, she meets a man with an old Fiat. Natalia skeptically gets into the car, which is overflowing with dirt and rubbish under the seats. It is dark and cold when they finally arrive at Kirsten Kjær’s Museum. She finds a place to spend the night, wakes up the next morning, and looks out the window.
– I saw the beauty of nature, and I fell in love from the first dawn, she says.
Photo: Bo Lehm“/>
Natalia Dolgova hopes that the war will end as soon as possible. Photo: Bo Lehm
This first meeting between Hannæs and Thy on the one hand and Natalia Dolgova on the other took place back in 1994. The occasion was that she was going to exhibit her paintings at Kirsten Kjær’s museum, and the connection she then got to the area is a direct reason to the fact that she lives and works in Frøstrup today.
A shock
It has been over 500 years since Denmark and Russia entered into a treaty that was supposed to create peace between the countries. Here, Denmark and Norway, among other things, helped Russia in the war once morest Sweden in the Great Nordic War in the 18th century.
It is a markedly different picture than the one we have today, when a year has passed since Russia invaded Ukraine. Now the whole West stands together to help the Ukrainians in their fight for freedom. For Natalia Dolgova, whose mother is from Siberia and whose father is Ukrainian, the outbreak of war was a shock.
– It was a shock to me, and I still think it’s wrong. I am very happy that Denmark provides protection to the Ukrainian families, and I have many friends from the language school with whom I speak Russian. I feel like they are my brothers and sisters, says Natalia Dolgova.
Natalia Dolgova is a Russian-Ukrainian living in Frøstrup, and she hopes that the war in Ukraine will soon come to an end. Photo: Bo Lehm
The war also comes close when Natalia talks to customers and friends who find it difficult not to ask her opinion, even though she would prefer to avoid it.
– When people come and buy my paintings, everyone wants to talk regarding the war. I try to avoid it, but people say, “Listen, it’s not your war. You don’t have to be sad,” she says, adding:
– I am an artist and mediator between the good and humanity. My job is to provide beauty, not to be involved in a political process. It is not up to me to decide what goes on in the world. Especially since my opinion cannot affect anything. Art is eternal and politics is temporary. I want peace as soon as possible, the only question is, what comes following peace?
Art and charisma
When you stand on Natalia Dolgova’s wooden terrace in winter in Frøstrup, and look out over the snowy landscape that embraces the area, it is almost like being in Siberia, where she grew up. More precisely, Chukotsky, where Russia stretches along the Bering Strait towards Alaska. There, in the coldest part of Russia, where the degrees hit minus 60 and where there is not much for a child to do except draw.
But luckily, Natalia liked to draw, and she did.
She is educated at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, where she spent her early years as an artist. Now she lives alone in Frøstrup and holds exhibitions from her gallery, where she particularly enjoys painting wild animals and Inuit motifs, inspired by her mother from the Baikan region, and Natalia’s life in Siberia and the Inuit she has met his way.
Natalia Dolgova is trained as a painter through the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. Photo: Bo Lehm
– I think they are so special because they can interpret life in a way that we cannot see. We have a different cultural code. Inuit like my art because I spread cultural information regarding them. If I wasn’t an artist, I would probably be an ethnographer, because I appreciate all cultures, she says.
She also paints oil paintings of fishing boats on the west coast and birds from the national park. That is why Thy and Hannæs are the perfect place for an artist.
Brexit ballad
Natalia Dolgova moved to London to pursue her artistic dream.
She has lived in Great Britain for the past 15 years, but has had a connection to Thy and Hannæs since she first set foot in the country, when she was to exhibit at Kirsten Kjærs Museum back in 1994. After the Brexit agreement, she chose to move permanently to Denmark.
The artist Natalia Dolgova has always been attracted to Thy since the first time she laid eyes on the area. Photo: Bo Lehm
Both because of Brexit, but also because she felt isolated in London. Here there was not the same closeness as in Frøstrup, where the locals are close and always willing to lend a hand, even if you come from outside.
– The locals are very helpful, open and supportive. Even my neighbors, who are typical Danish farmers, always ask if I need help and offer their friendship. It is a feeling of community, says Natalia Dolgova and adds:
– After traveling halfway around the globe, it is here in Denmark where I feel most comfortable mentally, physically and spiritually.
