Transcarpathian artists

Ivan Ilko, Honoured artist of Ukraine:

There can be no artist without a love to native land, without patriotism.

Ivan Sutev, People’s Artist of Ukraine:

One has to respect the heritage and not to loose the source, the foundation of the renowned school of Transcarpathian painting.

Volodymyr Mykyta, People’s Artist of Ukraine, Academician of the Academy of Arts of Ukraine, T. H. Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine laureate. :

To serve faithfully the destination which we have been given by Lord! To be free and at the same time profound in our work.

Petro Feldeshi, Honoured artist of Ukraine:

Concerning the artists of Transcarpathia – all together they are like Carpathian mountains, bigger and smaller, still growing and those lowering, with their Hoverla and Petros peaks…, but it is a single Carpathian ridge – Transcarpathian school of art.

Ernest Kontratovych:

An artist cannot count even the simple days of the week, using uninteresting prose. He must see the beauty that surrounds us every moment. The nature also teaches this.

Vasyl Skakandiy:

Harmony is in simplicity. When everything is frank, without muddle and arrogance – this is art.

Petro Sholtes:

I paint because this is the will of my soul. When you live in accordance with your soul – you are happy.

Yozhef Sekeresh:

Artist must go his own particular way in painting. Everyone has his mountains, his sky, his flowers.

Yuriy Siarkevych:

I was struck by Transcarpathian school. It is full of temperament, it is sonorous and what is interesting – it is musical.

Yuriy Bodnar:

The artist's work is harmonious if all factors take part in its creating – soul, heart, reason, emotions and body.

Yuriy Herts:

When you think a lot, analyse and suddenly you feel a stick in your soul, then you take a brush or a pencil.

Vladyslav Habda:

Art is the part of human consciousness that draws us nearer to subconsciousness, religion, kindness.

Vasyl Svaliavchyk:

A painting cannot be born for no particular reason. You go with that white empty canvas and heap of tubes with colours and you understand: a will is needed and blessing from above.

Oleh Harahonych:

Kindness and honesty are the most important in the profession of the painter.

Anton Shepa:

I have always been inspired by love to the native land and respect to our traditions and customs.

Yozhef Rushchak:

Nature in the paintings lives its own mysterious life: the colourful diversity on the land seems to reflect in the depth of sky – in this you feel the harmony of calmness and peace.

Yosyp Babynets:

It is important to remember what a priceless gift is our life presented to us by Lord.

Zoltan Michka:

Time is the best critic. And it is on our side, because with flow of time the canvases of our countrymen only get more expensive, they really have extremely high national art value!

Ivan Didyk:

In order to create you need the presence of the Holy Spirit, in other words – creative spirit.

Serhiy Biba:

The main thing is not to restrain yourself and to show your essence, to reflect your emotional experience through your prism of thinking.

Vasyl Filesh:

Love, respect to nature is a pledge of feed-back, of energetic return first of all.

Yuriy Shelevytskyi:

When Lord gives you talent and wish to work, you are the happiest man, because you are indulged in your favourite occupation.

Yuriy Moshak:

A painting does not have to be a copy of the seen, it is the expression of your own approach to art and your philosophical interpretation.

Tetiana Levlias:

Painting is like a wheel of a soul, which you have to turn by your everyday work, and then it keeps on turning by itself, and you are feeling the beneficial awakening of the creative essence.

Ivan Romaniuk:

I agree that artist is one percent of talent from Lord and the rest are the years of titanic work.

Tetiana Sopilniak:

To paint for me is like to live, to breathe, to love. It is always a search of self-expression, transformation of the real world into the world invented by me.

Eldar Efendiyev:

The artist credo is not to compare, not to be proud, not to envy.

Odarka Dolhosh-Sopko:

I like creative work in all its diversity, but art created by nature is the most beautiful.

Olena Kondratiuk:

The process of creation gives you for a certain moment the feeling that you can create a new reality. This illusion carries you away and you work to experience it again and again.

Vasyl Vovchok:

Defining for myself the notion of the Transcarpathian school of art, I would first of all speak of the powerful energy that runs through the painting of our classics.

Lesia Pryimych:

I am sure that if you put in a canvas all your pain or joy, the work will have the content you have been trying to obtain.

Maria Mytryk:

In my childhood I thought that to be an artists is something unattainable. It was something holy for me… Now the painting saves and gives stimulus to live.

Nadia Didyk:

My position in painting is to bring aesthetic pleasure and positive mood.

Attila Kopryva:

The development of art resembles the life of a tree: it grows from roots but always moves upward and every season its crown grows up and new branches appear.

Olha Skakandiy:

Creative work is a flight of soul, it is seeing and depicting the world through your feelings. I am lucky: I was born and I live in Transcarpathia which has rich traditions, customs, culture.

Emma Levadska:

The main thing in my work is freedom and experiment in different kinds of art but with certain inclination to the Transcarpthian school.

Andriy Ivancho:

The work of the artist is valuable for his personal culture, temperament, energy, effort. "We have inherited the Earth from our parents, we have borrowed it from our children" – these are the words that must lead us on the path of life.

Liubov Mykyta:

As for me, it is no wonder that the school of painting was created right here. Carpathians attract the energy of creation. Sometimes I seem to have gone out of those mountains…

Vasyl Betsa:

Painting is a harmony of emotions, feelings, colour and artistic taste… You should paint what you feel.

Anton Kovach:

What a happiness it is, if one drop of summer rain is enough to feel the bliss from the heaven.

Taras Usyk:

You can recognize the pieces of art at the first glance as love. In fact painting is a vitally important means of communication, which unites us all in the same feelings.

Pavlo Kovach:

Sometimes it is worth to stop, to become thoughtful, to recollect… Painting is a special space, the laws and dimensions functioning there are totally different from those accepted by everyday life.

Maria Kopanska:

The folk art is an experience of many centuries, the heritage of the materialized ideas based on the laws of universe and life.