An inner desire to flee the harsh and gray realities of the Siege of Leningrad by the Nazis during the war led Natalya Rakmanuna to pursue a life of freedom through painting.

Here, away from the frozen grays of city buildings she escaped into a world of vibrant color, the colors of meadow flowers, rivers and the lush green of the countryside in autumn and summer.

This watercolorist's latest exhibition of paintings at the "Experiment Theatre" on Kamennootrovsky is so lifelike it's frightening.

The colors seem to jump out from the canvas and her still life subjects are so real you could almost reach out and touch them, smell them, even hear them.

She is showing her work along with 21 other artists in this exhibition where she mainly concentrates on still life taken from technical drawings.

This painter loves flowers and seems to know their inner soul and has a feel for their character. It's hardly surprising that she treats them as if they were living subjects and indeed they are.

Each one seems to tell its own story in its own language, the language of meadows, rivers and woods, their atmosphere can almost be felt.

You can imagine the chirp of the grasshoppers and hear the soft purring of lawnmowers and the smell of freshly cut grass.

This artist has an excellent grasp on color and form. You almost want to eat the apples in her still life and taste the strong tea depicted through its thick glass cup.

And then, look out of the window and see the morning mist dispersing.

Natalya Rakmanina was born in Leningrad in 1932 into the family of children's writer and artist Sergei Rakmanin who was well known during the 1920s.

She graduated from the Architecture Faculty at Leningrad's Construction and Engineering Institute and for more than 20 years restored old Russian monuments She was involved in several projects restoring churches and the ancient fortified citadel walls at Pskov.

Natalya is a member of the Union of Artists, and it was when she was still a student that she studied watercolor painting. In 1957 she was well received in an exhibition by Pskov artists.

Examples of her work were acquired by one of the local museums, and in 1982, 1985 and 1988 she hosted her own exhibitions, some of her work finding its way into English collections.

Cyclamen are one of her favorites as she captures their delicate white flowers so reminiscent of autumn. Painted in bright, rich colors they proudly rise above the table.

She attempts to look at the world through the eyes of flowers, their own special world, a world of nature pure and clean. Simple subjects which surround us.

Natalya Rakmanina well remembers the Seige of Leningrad and has learned to value every moment in life, the sound of birds singing, the noise of the rain.

Looking at her paintings it is hard to believe what a terrible price was paid during this time when one sees her spontaneous, childlike optimism painted against a backdrop of memories of that harsh winter of the blockade.