People's Icons - Iconography of the Russian Provinces

In the vast folklore stratum of non-professional icon painting in Russia, icons by simple rural craftsmen, called bogomazi or God-painters, stand out. They were engaged in the icon-painting but also “daubed” everything to please their soul - paintings of flowers, birds, the interiors of rural houses, and even decorated furniture. They loved the Savior, his Mother the Divine, and the most revered Russian Saints: St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, St. George the Victorious, Paraskeva the Friday, Elijah the Prophet, Alexander Nevsky, and all others, and therefore ​depicted them as they could. ​In many places in the distant lands of Russia, there was no other kind of icons available  - either they were ​kept ​within the closed walls of ​the ​monasteries or they were too expensive for the ordinary people. Today, ​the ​provincial icons are studied not only as a distinct ​variety of the Orthodox iconography but also as examples of Russian folk art.