Varichev Ivan Mikhailovich (1924 - 2016) - Soviet and Russian painter, People's Artist of the Russian Federation. Ivan Mikhailovich was born in 1924 into a peasant family, in the village of Nizhnyaya Loshiha, in the Smolensk region. From childhood entered his life and unhurried village life, and the concept of peasant labor on the ground. Graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after Repin (1957), workshop of Yu.M. Neprintseva. Studied with V.G. Valtseva, I.P. Stepashkin. In 1963-1965 he was engaged in the creative workshop of A.A. Mylnikov.
Participated in exhibitions since 1957, exhibiting his works together with the works of the leading masters of the visual arts of Leningrad. He painted landscapes, genre compositions, thematic paintings, sketches from nature. In 1960 he became a member of the Leningrad Union of Artists. Master of landscape painting. The development went from the traditional plein-air painting towards impressionistic enrichment, generalization of form and some conventionality of composition.
In 1960-1980s Varichev worked a lot at the creative base of Leningrad artists in Staraya Ladoga. It is no coincidence that the theme of the ancient Volkhov, nature and rural life of Ladoga region became the leading one in the artist's work. Works of the 1970s-1980s nominated Varichev among the leading Leningrad masters of landscape painting. In 1983, Ivan Varichev was awarded the honorary title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR, in 2005 - the title of People's Artist of the Russian Federation. Full member of the Petrovskaya Academy of Sciences and Arts.
The artist's works are in: the State Russian Museum, the Museum of the History of the City of St. Petersburg, in many regional museums, as well as in private collections in Russia and abroad.