CHANGE

Modern drawing made in the style of Petrykivka painting by Natalia Stasiv-Garko

It may seem that time is unchanged. More than six months have passed since the last publication. During this time, many events have passed that can be packaged in one word – change.
The Chinese, when they want to wish something bad, say that you should live during changes. They make sense because this is the most uncertain time, which slows down any planning, postpones things indefinitely, interferes with meetings and postpones events. But what to do, when this happened to you.
Therefore, I will briefly summarize my post.

I’m sure many people have found themselves in this state.
Today I am only talking about the present tense.
The large collection of wood paintings I created in the traditional Ukrainian style was shown in August and had both positive and negative responses. I may return to the positive ones, but I’ll dwell on the negative ones in more detail.
This is my first time painting on wood. I have not done this before. If we approach the creation of the project technically, then its goal was to create mutually complementary objects that together would create the same composition.

Composition of the drawing, completed in Petrykivka style and presented for teaching drawing techniques in a book about Petrykivka painting

The critics felt that I did not perform the traditional Ukrainian Petrikovsky painting correctly, or to put it differently, in an original way. Well, although these critics do not know how to draw and have a superficial understanding, they decided to consider me a failure.
I am not defending myself and I am not going to argue. But thanks to the first women (Petrikovsky painting is known for the fact that the first women who mastered it were women who painted the walls of their houses) who painted cockerels, birds and flowers in an absolutely free style and decorated their houses with them, we now have a whole galaxy of artists of this style. If you look at the works of each of them, they are very different and they have in common the creation of a composition around several symbols.

One of the founders of Petrykivka painting in Ukraine Maria Prymachenko

Years have passed and this style, thanks to modern graphic programs, has reached absolute perfection. Moreover, many schools and courses have appeared that are ready to teach you this skill for your money.
And yet, based on primary sources, I would advise you to remain tied to the three fundamentals of this painting – creativity, composition around symbols and image technique.

One of the famous paintings created by Maria Primachenko


That’s why I wished and wish today to everyone who is fighting for something, look at the primary sources and add your creativity – you will succeed.

Another painting by Maria Prymachenko, the founder of Petrykivka painting


The most interesting thing in learning any folk painting is mastering the principles.
Although I will now be criticized again, the founders of this type of painting did not interconnect the composition; many objects of the composition were, as it were, separated. If you look at photographs of one of the first creators of this type of painting, you can see how stamping, the creation of separate drawings, which are located one next to the other.

Modern apartment decor in Petrykivka style

Two centuries ago, the goal for artists was to create a drawing that would create coziness in the room, protect it and harmonize with everyday life. Therefore, cheerful roosters and hens, wonderful bright princes with colorful plumage and long multi-colored tails, flowers of unusual shapes and color harmony appeared on the walls.

It was rural folklore, the art of the country people who decorated their homes.
And today, Ukrainian artists have supplemented and improved it and created masterpiece collections of paintings, introducing this type of art into the traditional Ukrainian folk art.
I’ll return to my collection. Drawing on wood requires its own skill. Technically, this is a more long-term work, and I was also required to create compositions on two chests, several kitchen boards, kitchen wooden shelves, souvenir wooden houses, Christmas tree decorations and sections of wood. I also tried painting on bags.

Photo from exhibition where was present my new collection.


I liked the combination of animals with modern elements. I took the cat as a symbol on the bag. That’s why I received criticism.

Another part of the collection among the exhibits on display


I’ll wait until the passion to ruin someone subsides and all this settles down and still, I’ll remain silent.
Someone else criticized that I was too confident in myself.
Friends, no. I hid, broke all my brushes, threw away the paints and am sitting waiting for something else to come to me.
I would like your problems.
Today I have donated several works to auctions and I believe that they will be useful.
Tomorrow is not predictable for me, I will say one thing – only those who do not do and do not create are not mistaken.
And I am again full of news and ideas, which I will tell you about in the next post.
All the best

Collection of winter paintings by Helen Polishuk

The beginning of the new 2019 year inspired me to write about my paintings about winter.

collection of winter paintings by Helen Polishuk (4)

You will immediately think that I love this topic. I live in Canada, where there is a lot of winter,more than 6 month in year.
And I manage to draw winter. I often received prizes and exhibited my works at exhibitions or published them in publications.
But I will disappoint you, this is one of my directions, but not the most beloved. I am very good drawing the winter.
Now those traditions of drawing, with which I started ,a little outdated.
This is still the traditional East European school, the old Russian traditions
collection of winter paintings by Helen Polishuk (3)
Over the years I began to move away from the primary methods of drawing.
You will be able to see how my equipment has changed on the example of the exposed photos in this post.
I am not an adherent of one theme and one style, one picture.
I always want a new one. It is in my life I am fidget.
collection of winter paintings by Helen Polishuk
Proposed for your viewing paintings, this is a small part of my work.
I don’t have many of them for a long time. They are in collections all over the world.
collection of winter paintings by Helen Polishuk (2)
The paintings of my works below are still relevant.
They are on sale in websites along with other paintings:
https://www.artfinder.com/helen-polishuk#/
https://www.saatchiart.com/helenpolishuk
https://www.artmajeur.com/helen-polishuk
http://helenpolishuk.com/
collection of winter paintings by Helen Polishuk (6)
Already living in Canada,I created  intresting collection of small paintings devoted to winter.
This is a lively collection filled with originality.
There are many things that show that I live in Canada. These are the buildings of houses and the landscape of nature.
I set up here to draw small pictures.
I will not say that it is special. I liked it.
Many critics say that on the contrary, it is harder to paint small paintings than big ones.
I will argue. It is easy for me to draw small paintings.
collection of winter paintings by Helen Polishuk (8)

That’s just sometimes you have to repeat to remove the layer of paint, shade white.
Therefore, the painting is not created in one month, and sometimes it takes about a year to finish it. This is the process of highlighting more  places in the painting.
Using this painting as an example, I show how applying a bleached layer several times gives a glow to the picture.
It is like nourished with small bright lights.
Very impressive!!!!!
collection of winter paintings by Helen Polishuk (5)
The range of shades is wide, although the winter landscape is monotonous.
This is not true in my collection.
collection of winter paintings by Helen Polishuk (9)
I continue to look to my direction. And the rest of my work only complements what was said
collection of winter paintings by Helen Polishuk (7)

I am glad to work for you and ask, look more often at my sites, read my posts, like and forward.
Everything I do, I create for you, my dear friends…..
@polishukelena