Daud M. Akhriev (Russian/Tennessee, born 1959) pastel on paper still life painting titled "Oriental Rug" depicting a colorful rug draped over a grey stone staircase. Signed "Akhriev" lower right. Paper label with artist's information en verso. Housed and matted under glass in a molded gilt wood frame. Sight - 23 5/8" H x 18" W. Framed - 35" H x 29 3/8" W. Late 20th/early 21st century. Provenance: The collection of Dr. William Kendall Striker, Chattanooga, TN, ex-Linda Woodall Fine Art, Ooletewah, TN. Biography (from artist's website): Born in the former Soviet Union in 1959, Daud Akhriev studied classical painting and drawing for 14 years, eight of them in St. Petersburg, Russia. In that city he received his masters degree with honors from the Repin Institute, under the tutelage of the late Piotr Fomin. In 1991 he emigrated to Chattanooga, Tennessee and has remained there since. In 1993 the Hunter Museum of American Art presented a solo exhibition of Akhriev's work and in 2007 Akhriev won an award of excellence from Oil Painters of America. He has four murals in Chattanooga: the Collegedale Seventh-Day Adventist Church, the Samaritan Center and St. Peter's Episcopal Church. Akhriev has taught summer courses in landscape for the Florence Academy of Art, in Florence, Italy and the University of Tennessee Chattanooga has invited him to be a guest instructor in their painting program.