Pichugova Nadezhda Sergeevna
* 16 May 1959
in the village of Kamyshevo,
Sverdlovsk region, Russia;
† 03 February 2022
in Dortmund, Germany

Nadezhda Pichugova (Shibelbein) and her wall painting (2008)
Nadya Pichugova (Надежда Сергеевна Пичугова) - Russian artist, architect, restorer, poetess. As a poet, she wrote more than 50 poems during her most active period from 1975 to 1981. Later, a collection of poems from her youth entitled “Echoes from the Last Century” was published in Germany. As an artist, Nadezhda has created more than 340 works. Among them are portraits, self-portraits, landscapes, still lifes, wall paintings and illustrations of children's poems, as well as thematic works in various genres. In 2022, a collection of her illustrations, “Collection of illustrations for children’s poems by Soviet writers” for 1993, was published. Nadezhda Pichugova's works are made in various techniques: pencil, ink, watercolor, pastel, oil and acrylic. From 2004 to 2018, Nadezhda was engaged in the art of restoring carpentry, furniture and antique furniture from different historical eras. In addition to her main work as an architect in Germany, since 2015 she has been actively working on the restoration of a church in her native village of Kamyshevo in Russia. In 2016, she completed an architectural design for the restoration of the St. St. George the Victorious in the village. Kamyshevo, Beloyarsky district, Sverdlovsk region, as well as a project for a wooden church in the village of Studenchesky. Nadezhda Pichugova conducted research on fresco painting on the walls of the Church of St. St. George the Victorious with proposals for their restoration. In terms of their subject matter, Nadezhda Pichugova’s early works can be classified as realism, and later works are mostly classified as surrealism.
Biography:
Childhood and youth.

Nadya Pichugova,
at school (1975)
Nadya Pichugova was born on May 16. 1959 in the village of Kamyshevo, Sverdlovsk region of the Russian Federation, which is located about 60 km from the city of Yekaterinburg, the administrative center of the Ural Federal District and the Sverdlovsk region (in Soviet times, Sverdlovsk).
Father Pichugov Sergei Mikhailovich (* 07.10.1921, the village of Sorovskoye, Shadrinsk district, Kurgan region, Russia; † 27.11.2012, the village of Kamyshevo) was a teacher of German at the Kamyshevo secondary school. Mother Zamiralova Clara Anatolyevna (* 01.07.1935, village Zamiralovo, Sverdlovsk region, Russia; † 17.02. 2015. p. Kamyshevo) was a musical worker in a kindergarten.
Nadezhda was the second child in the family. Her older sister Tatyana was born on November 24, 1957. In the eyes of her fellow villagers, Nadia was a good-natured, friendly, helpful, compassionate, sweet and modest child. Nadia was a good-natured, friendly, helpful, compassionate, sweet and modest child. When she was 7 years old, she went to school. She never received drawing lessons anywhere. At about 14, her natural gift and talent was first appreciated by her cousin Mikhail Pichugov (* 11.26.1947 - † 08.10.1986), who had an art education.
He contributed in every possible way to the development of young Nadia's artistic abilities and talent and her development as an artist. Under his guidance, she turned to painting and continued her studies on her own following his advice. She was talented in everything, no matter what she took on or whatever she was fond of. From her grandmother Taisiya Vasilievna, nee Fomina, (* 22.10.1893, village of Crosses, Kurgan region, Russia; † 24.03.1988, village of Kamyshevo) learned to sew, embroider, crochet and knit perfectly. She sewed original and fashionable dresses, trousers and blouses not only for herself, but also for her friends. Her friend Lyuba Chernykh recalled 15-year-old Nadia: “She embroidered very beautifully. I even sewed a coat for myself and embroidered the collar and sleeves. We asked where did you buy such a coat? They were very surprised when they found out that everything was on their own, and before ... ". Father Sergei Mikhailovich Pichugov instilled in her a love for photography and carpentry. She made wooden frames for her paintings herself. Mother Klara Anatolyevna Zamiralova passed on her love for music, poetry, gardening and household. She grew up in a friendly family, where they monitored the comprehensive development of children, instilled the skills of cultural behavior, hard work. Since 1975, Nadia began to write poetry together with her school friend Irina Skobelina from the age of 15. At school, Nadya studied mostly "good" and "excellent". In high school, her health deteriorated, and she began to miss a lot of lessons due to illness. The class teacher Makhaev P.F. at the end of the school described her as follows: “... Nadya draws well, has great taste in design work. She made a lot of visual aids for classrooms and stand design. Nadia has an inexhaustible imagination. Combined with her artistic taste, this allows her to create amazing drawings, crafts, toys. Nadia is a calm, quiet, self-possessed girl. With adults, teachers, classmates is always friendly. The guys in the team respect Nadia ... ". She always remembered her childhood as the brightest, warmest and happiest period in her life.
Becoming an artist.
Initially, after graduating from the School, in September 1976, Nadya Pichugova got a job as a designer at the Uralgiproruda Institute in the city of Sverdlovsk (today Yekaterinburg) as a draftsman in the electrical department.
Living in the city with Aunt Alexandra (sister of Sergei Pichugov's father) and her husband Boris Semyonovich Vyatkin in an apartment, she, as a future artist, visited city museums and galleries with great interest, admiring the works of eminent and famous artists. In her free time, with great zeal, she set to work on her skills and achieved good results in painting. Thanks to frequent contact with works of art, Nadia began to understand and appreciate painting. Yearning for her native picturesque village of Kamyshevo and for her relatives and friends, in May 1977 she quit her previous job and went home to her native village. Kamyshevo, where at the age of 18 she was hired as a teacher of labor and drawing in a secondary school in the village of Kamyshevo. After working as an art teacher for more than a year, she quits due to her admission in November 1978 to the courses of graphic designers, which she graduated with honors in April 1979.
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Nadya Pichugova,
with a brush in hand (1977)
In terms of subject matter, Nadia's early works can be classified as realism, while later works are mostly surrealist. At the age of 19, Nadya Pichugova experienced her first strong love interest, which gave a new impetus to her poetic and artistic work. However, the object of her unrequited love in the spring of 1982, after being drafted into the Soviet army, disappears from her life forever and irrevocably. At this time, she gradually refuses further poetic creativity, but stubbornly continues to develop her artistic talent. Later, while living in Germany, she nevertheless decided to publish a collection of poems from her youth called "Echoes from the Last Century". Later, in May 2022, her friend Beloborodova Natalya Yurievna (* 06.13.1965 - † 07.13.2022) also published this collection of poems in Russia.
Since May 1979, Nadya Pichugova, working as a graphic designer, has been trying to enter an art school in 1980, and also exhibits her selected works for an animation competition at the Sverdlovsk film studio.
Many of her works were lost for unknown reasons and she was removed from the competition. Despite the failure, she plunges into painting with renewed vigor and continues to take lessons in absentia from her cousin Mikhail Pichugov. Since childhood, Nadia dreamed of restoring the destroyed church in her native village of Kamyshevo. Under the influence of her cousin, architect Mikhail Borisovich Vyatkin (* 11/7/1949), in 1981 Nadia began preparations for entering the architectural institute. In the summer of 1982, she passed the drawing exams with excellent marks, and after passing the rest of the exams, she began her studies at the Sverdlovsk Architectural Institute in the fall. While studying at the architectural institute, she had no equal in drawing, painting and sculpture among her classmates. She always passed these subjects with excellent marks. As her classmate later wrote: “Nadya was unusually talented. I looked with delight, as if spellbound, and could not take my eyes off the confident movements of her magical hands ... ". In the evenings after studying at the institute, in order to finance her studies, she had to continue working as a graphic designer.

Nadya Pichugova (1980)
It took a lot of time, including travel by public transport. Therefore, she also tried to earn money for two months as a cleaner of the educational building at the architectural institute in the evenings after the educational process. Already in her first year, she became friends with a Russian-German classmate Alexander Shibelbein (* August 9, 1965, Karaganda, Kazakhstan). Despite the difference in age, their friendship gradually grew into love and they meet the new year 1983/1984 as a couple in love, already openly announcing their engagement to everyone. After meeting in the summer of 1984 with the groom's parents, who lived in the northern Caucasus in the city of Zelenokumsk, Stavropol Territory, they got married on September 6, 1985.
After her marriage, Nadezhda Pichugova retains her maiden name only as a pseudonym for the artist. On her works, she continued, as before, to put her Autograph - НП (capital letters of the name and maiden name).
Since 1983, all young students were drafted into the Soviet army, and Nadya's husband Alexander was drafted on June 6, 1986, despite the fact that in the 4th year he was already a student of the military department at the Sverdlovsk Architectural Institute. Two months after these events, on August 10, 1986, her cousin and her artistic mentor Mikhail Pichugov suddenly died, before reaching the age of 39. All this was a great mental shock for Nadia. In 1986, she could not paint a single picture, nor draw a single drawing. She was already expecting the birth of her daughter. Daughter Varenka was born on February 14, 1987 on St. Valentine's Day (Valentine's Day). But due to the mistakes made by doctors when taking delivery in the clinic of the village. Beloyarsky, before reaching the age of two months, the daughter dies on April 5, 1987 as a result of blood sepsis. All this time, from the very moment of the birth of her daughter, Nadia was with her in the clinic. After the funeral of her daughter, Nadya was baptized in the Orthodox Ivan the Baptist Church in the city of Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg). In the summer of 1987, in order to distract herself from gloomy thoughts and suffering about losses, she travels with her friend Marina Elizarova (Ternovaya) to the Arkhangelsk region to restore and conserve wooden churches (monuments of Russian wooden architecture) on the banks of the northern Dvina.

Nadezhda Sergeevna Pichugova - Shibelbein (1986)
The beautiful nature of the northern region acted invigoratingly and healthily on Nadia, and she again began to paint watercolors and make sketches in pencil. In the spring, March 24, 1988, her beloved grandmother Taisya died, and on April 5 of the same year, her husband Alexander returned after demobilization from the army. In the summer of 1988, as part of a student team, Nadya took part in the restoration and restoration work of the ancient palace of the Kharitonov family in Yekaterinburg. In 1988-1989, Nadezhda had practically no free time for artistic creativity, due to her graduation work at the Sverdlovsk Institute of Architecture. Nadezhda Pichugova defended her diploma with excellent marks on February 24, 1989, and after the distribution of young architects, she left for the city of Omsk, where she worked in the Siberian branch of the Spetsproektrestavratsiya Institute in the Architectural and Restoration Workshop No. 3. After defending her diploma by her husband Alexander Shibelbein on February 23,1990 and its further distribution to the city of Kamensk-Uralsky, Sverdlovsk region, Nadezhda moves from Omsk to him. From the city of Kamensk-Uralsky, they received a two-room apartment and both worked as architects in the branch of the Sverdlovsk Design Institute "Sverdlovskgrazhdanproekt", in the architectural planning workshop No. 5. Here in Kamensk-Uralsky, on September 20, 1990, their daughter Elsa was born. All these years, due to lack of time and a broken arm, Nadezhda manages to make only a few small paintings, rather in order not to lose her previously acquired skills. At the same time, together with her husband Alexander, she was also engaged in the repair and restoration of furniture. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the catastrophic deterioration of living conditions in Russia, the family left on August 28, 1993 for permanent residence in Germany, at the invitation of the German relatives of her husband Alexander Shibelbein.
The flowering of creativity. Last years.
Contrary to expectations, upon arrival in Germany, Nadezhda with Alexander and her daughter Elsa were not sent to her husband's relatives in Baden-Württemberg, but first to Hamm in North Rhine Westphalia.
Three days later they are sent to Berenstein in Saxony, on the German-Czech border. From there, after paperwork, they were sent to the small town of Tauch near Leipzig in Saxony, where they received a six-month German language course. In the winter of 1993, the three-year-old daughter Elsa was admitted to the infectious diseases department of the hospital in Leipzig in a serious condition. For a whole month, Nadya has to be constantly in the clinic next to her daughter, since the child could not understand and speak German at all. After the German language course in April 1994, the whole family moves to Bad Neustadt an der Saale in Bavaria for a six-month course to adapt Russian specialists with higher education to the German labor market.
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Nadezhda Pichugova and Alexander Shibelbein, Russia (1992)
Although Nadezhda lived with her family in dormitories during this period and did not have good conditions for artistic creativity, she still made more than 75 illustrations of children's poems by Soviet writers for her daughter. She supplemented her illustrations with the text of the respective poems. After the vocational adjustment measure, the family moved to Dortmund in North Rhine-Westphalia, where they initially rented a two-room apartment in the attic. Finally, in the new conditions, Nadezhda resumes the creative process. Here, from 1994 to 1995, she painted new works, mainly flowers and still lifes, landscapes, portraits and self-portraits, as well as thematic works in various genres. At the same time, she tries herself in various techniques using pencil, ink, watercolor, oil, pastel. In October 1995, her husband Alexander, after half a year of practice, finally receives an open-ended employment contract in an architectural bureau and enters the union of architects of North-Rhine Westphalia. At the end of the year, they move to a larger three-room apartment, where Nadezhda has more space for her creative processes. But the longing for her homeland, for her parents and loved ones, the obstacles she experienced due to the language barrier to get a job as an architect, as well as the underestimation and non-perception of her abilities and her talent by the surrounding German population constantly oppressed her. Since 1996, she began to make thematic works that reflect her inner mood and state of mind. She completed only three paintings in 1998 before her desire for another child is tragically cut short. After the subsequent surgery, she was no longer able to have children. Fleeing from the depression caused by these events, Nadezhda again turned to painting. In 2003, after buying a house, Nadezhda has a separate room for her work. Despite the creative growth of Nadezhda Pichugova, the public still did not perceive and did not buy her paintings, which was very painful for her. In 2004, she manages to sell several of her paintings, but at the same time, Nadezhda is often forced to adapt to the tastes and wishes of the buyers themselves. Since she herself did not like such paintings, she did not put her autograph on them, leaving them completely without a “signature”, or signed them with a fictitious pseudonym “Roche Michelle”, at the request and suggestion of one of the buyers of the paintings. From 2006, she refused to waste her time satisfying other people's tastes and looked for new creative ways. Since 2008, she has been trying her hand at painting walls with acrylic paints. Continuing her artistic work, Nadezhda successfully completed computer courses (CAD) for architects in 2008, and after completing her internship, in 2009 she gets a job in her profession in an architectural bureau. In addition to this, from 2004 to 2018, Nadezhda was also engaged in the art of restoring joinery and furniture products and antique furniture from different historical eras. Restoring antique furniture is a laborious and painstaking process, and the main task for Nadezhda was to restore the item while maintaining its original appearance. This work required from her not only special skills in carpentry, received in childhood from her father, Sergei Mikhailovich Pichugov, but also great patience. Sometimes, in order to bring antique furniture back to life, it was necessary to completely disassemble it, put each individual element in order, and then reassemble it in order to restore not only the appearance of the furniture, but also its functionality. The skills she learned as a child from her grandmother Taisia proved useful in restoring the filler and soft upholstery of antique chairs. Since 2008, Nadja's health has steadily deteriorated, but the doctors have not been able to determine anything. A fiery artistic temperament, a painful impulse to harmony, beauty and happiness and at the same time the fear of misanthropic forces are embodied in her new paintings "Nadja ist krank" (2008), "Verbindung der Welten" (2008), "Gegen den Strom" (2008) and "Die Tür" (12.10.2008) in the style of surrealism. Often the plots of such paintings were born in the images of nightmares. Longing for relatives and uncontrollable nostalgia for her native land in Russia haunt her. Therefore, in subsequent years, she, together with her husband, tried, if possible, to spend a vacation two or three times a year in her native village of Kamyshevo with her parents. Her father Sergey Mikhailovich Pichugov died on 11/27/2012. Two years later, on April 14, 2014, her aunt Pichugova Antonina Mikhailovna, the sister of Nadya's father, who was her teacher during her school years. A year later, on February 17, 2015, her mother Pichugova Clara Anatolyevna (nee Zamiralova) dies. In the summer of 2015, with the goodwill of the rector of the church, Father Pavel (Onosov Pavel Evgenievich), she voluntarily and her husband do the measuring work of the church in her native village of Kamyshevo, and in 2016, according to them, she completes the architectural project of the proposal for the restoration of the building of the church of St. George the Victorious in the village. Kamyshevo, as well as a draft proposal for a wooden church in the village of Studenchesky, Beloyarsky district, Sverdlovsk region, Russian Federation. She carried out all the work free of charge as her personal contribution to the revitalization and restoration of the church.She carried out all the work free of charge as her personal contribution to the revitalization and restoration of the church. In the following years, Nadja's artistic paintings became more and more tragic. After the cardiological examination in 2019, doctors gave the prognosis that Nadja would last no more than 10 years with such a heart. Nadezhda's reaction was: "That can't be because I have enough plans for at least another 30 years..." She tackled the implementation of her ideas and plans with renewed vigour. In February 2020, the next blow is the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, metastases, fourth stage. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, an outpatient chemotherapy regimen was chosen, which allowed Nadezhda to continue working on her plans while at home. According to previous studies of fresco painting on the walls of the Church of St. George the Victorious and photographs taken earlier, she and her husband Alexander write the work “Mural painting on lime plaster in the Church of George the Victorious in the village. Kamyshevo, Sverdlovsk Region” which also included her proposals for the restoration of the lost elements of individual frescoes and the Fresco “Prayer for the Chalice”. At this time, Nadezhda also made sketches of floor plans for the "House of Pilgrims" in the village. Kamyshevo. Unfortunately, her plans and ideas she did not manage to carry out to the end. Pichugova Nadezhda Sergeevna, in the marriage of Shibelbein, died on February 3, 2022 at her home in Dortmund, Germany. On January 30, 2022, he received the last confession and communion and on February 9, 2022, conducted a funeral according to the Russian Orthodox tradition, Priest Igor Shirovsky of the parish of the Holy and Life-Giving Trinity in Dortmund. Pichugova Nadezhda Sergeevna was buried in the village of Kamyshevo next to her daughter Varya, grandmother and her parents. Her latest works in 2021 with proposals for the restoration of individual frescoes, such as: "Prayer for the Chalice", the face of St. Great Martyr Barbara, St. Catherine of Alexandria, face of St. Evdokia of Iliopol, the face of St. Antonina of Nicaea, and the reconstruction of the face of Jesus Christ, seated on the Throne in the northern and southern aisles of the Church of St. George the Victorious in the village of Kamyshevo, were transferred by her husband Alexander Shibelbein, after her death, to the church with. Kamyshevo to the rector and chairman of the parish council Pavel Evgenievich Onosov. For the restoration of the church, their personal savings in the amount of 5 thousand euros were also handed over. Her book "Fresco painting of the Church of St. George the Victorious in the village of Kamyshevo, Sverdlovsk Oblast" was published in January 2023. As an artist during her lifetime, she was practically ignored and she managed to sell only a few of her paintings. Basically, she gave her works to friends, relatives and relatives.
Gallery:
Self portraits and portraits

Portrait, Boy at school, Pencil_NP-1972

Portrait of a Boy, Pencil, НП-1975

Portrait, Daughter Elsa, Pastel_НП-1994

Portrait, Mama Clara, Pastel_НП-1995

Portrait of Daughter Else, Acrylic, НП-1997

Portrait, Father Sergei, Pastel_НП-2012

Portrait, Girl at school, Pencil_NP-1972

Portrait, Sister Tanya, Pencil_НП-1977

Portrait, Sasha Sh., Pastel_НП-1995

Seryozha - Birthday present for a friend Lena P., Pencil_NP-1975

Portrait, Ira Tretyakova, Ink_НП-1988

Self-portrait, Pencil_НП-1995

Self-portrait, Pastel_НП-1995

Portrait, Elsa and Sasha, Oil_НП-1995

Self-portrait, Circus, Oil_НП-2002

Portrait, Valentin Sh., Maslo_НП- 2008

Portrait, Sister Tatiana, Acrylic_НП-2019

Portrait for the 35th Anniversary of the Wedding, Acrylic, НП-2020
still lifes

Still life with jug, Watercolor_НП-1977

Still life with tomato, Watercolor_НП-1978_

