The exhibition Folk Talents of Sloboda Ukraine Region was opened at the Regional Center of Culture and Art. It is dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Kharkiv Organization of the Union of Folk Artists of Ukraine. Diversity of the exhibition impresses: vyshyvankas (embroidered shirts), rushnyks (embroidered ritual cloth), amazing works of cattail and straw, dolls, ceramics, and painting. About fifty participants presented their exhibits, and the folk group Muravsky Shliakh created folk atmosphere at the opening.

Petrykivka Style Postcards

The main secret of Petrykivka painting is use of cat hair brushes, as Tamara Vakulenko tells, and she is the Honored Folk Artist of Ukraine. It is this tool which enables to draw fine lines patterns, and the subtle wool is taken from a cat's tummy down for it. The berries are drawn with the back of the pencil, exactly like Tamara Vakulenko's students have demonstrated. They have drawn Petrykivka-style postcards for everyone and signed them as mementos at the opening of the exhibition.

'These girls are studying just for a couple of months at the workshops held at the Center of Culture and Art, but they have already mastered the basic principles of Petrykivka painting,' Tamara Vakulenko says. 'And it's not as easy as it seems at first: they have had to learn the basics of color, all the specific elements of this particular painting.'

The Secret of Longevity

The 87-year-old author of the unique rushnyks, the Honored Master of Folk Art of Ukraine, Raisa Zakharivna Kushnarenko has been studying this kind of work most of her life. She has experience in making 50 rushnyk stitches.

'Since my childhood, I remember we've had embroidered things everywhere at home, my mother sewed well. But I've taken up this seriously 30 years ago, when I've come to the House of Folk Art, where the masters taught this,' Raisa Zakharivna says. 'In order to become a true master of embroidery, you need to be talented. And if you do not have patience and perseverance, you will never embroider. And the skill is impossible to achieve without unstitching. I've unstitched a lot. I embroider rushnyks of three types: white-on-white, red-and-black and white-on-gray. I have one rushnyk from all over Ukraine and Russia, because I was curious to try it. Here's colored intorted stitch (perevit') – one can encounter it only in Russia.'

Mostly, these are patterns of Sloboda Ukraine, just in Raisa Kushnarenko's interpretation. It takes at least three months for Raisa Zakharivna to embroider a white-on-white rushnyk. She has embroidered a total of over a hundred of rushnyks, and half of them have left for the world. Her works are at the T. G. Shevchenko Memorial in Kaniv, at the Pyrohiv Museum of Folk Architecture and Rural Life in Kyiv region, and even in the city of Toronto, Canada.

And now, she conceives several patterns in her mind. In order not to get bored of the monotonous work, she sometimes starts several rushnyks with various ornaments to switch. Now she's still mastering beadwork, she's started embroidering icons and landscapes. It is a miracle that she does not just embroider in her years, but creates the works of art. Each day, the master is engaged with embroidering for 8 hours, she copes with household chores very quickly, and rushes to get to her labor of love. She thinks that the secret of her longevity is in creative arts.

Aircraft Engineers Dream of Reconstruction of Ancient Hollow-Ware

A young potter, Oleksandr Zhovnovsky is an aircraft engineer by education. He has been a businessman for some time, until he has got into pottery. Now he is a true master of his craft. He's presented the Ukrainian household utensils made ​​of clay at the exhibition. His dream is to create an exhibition where authentic things close to the originals would be presented, both in appearance and in composition, representing different historical periods and collected from all over Ukraine.

'I do not know whether there are archaeological data, I want to examine this issue,' Oleksandr Zhovnovsky is sharing his plans. 'Another direction, in my opinion, is very important: you need to teach children the art of pottery, because working with clay and a potter's wheel develops fine motor skills, creative imagination, and acts as a sedative. In addition, the only way to keep this kind of folk art is passing from generation to generation. And the kids love it. I discovered this while holding workshops here, at the Center of Culture and Art.'

Welcome to the exhibition of works by the folk-crafts artists till March, 20 at the following address: Kharkiv, vul. Pushkinska, 62.

The exhibition hall is open 10.00 to 17.30, closed on Sundays.

Media about the exhibition