"A digital snapshot (2024) of a wooden house from which Rustam Khalfin painted his sketch from the Krasny Yar in Color series in July 1990. As of July 2024. the gray barn (an annex to the house) and the wooden fence that were there at the time when the Artist painted the sketch from nature have not been preserved. In one period (from 07/20 to 07/28/1990), Rustam Khalfin painted two sketches from nature in the same color scheme. The sketches are marked with the hashtag "Kostrin's cottage".
Memoirs of Maria Kostrina, 2024: "When I was 9 years old (July 1990), Rustam Khalfin visited us in the village of Krasny Yar in the Nizhny Novgorod region. She and her dad, Valery Kostrin, painted a lot. I remember how Rustam painted a sketch from the window of our house. From the window, we could see the house of our neighbor, grandmother Lida, fences and a vegetable garden, as well as thickets of yellow golden balls flowers. An uninitiated viewer may not immediately see all this in Rustam's sketch, but for me this work absolutely accurately conveys the colors and mood of this particular corner of our village. I also remember how I collected a very small bouquet of wildflowers, there were snapdragons, yarrow and, most likely, bluebells or mouse polka dots. I put the bouquet in a small glass and left it on the table. To my surprise and great pride, my bouquet attracted the attention of Rustam, and he even painted it from life in his unique style, greatly enlarging it in size....""