Vancouver Fine Art Gallery features Ukrainian artist for live painting session
Kyiv-based painter Mykola Yurov worked on a piece during an event connecting artists with the public
Mykola Yurov, a Kyiv, Ukraine-based artist, worked on an oil painting of a woman drinking from a small pail bucket at the Vancouver Fine Art Gallery's live painting event. (Suneet Gill)
The Vancouver Fine Art Gallery hosted a live painting event with Mykola Yurov, a Kyiv, Ukraine-based artist, on July 8.
Yurov was part of the weekly summer event, where a professional artist either paints or sculpts live near the entrance of the gallery.
Dror Darel, the director of the gallery, finds giving artists this opportunity allows them to connect with customers and visitors.
“People love seeing artists paint. People love seeing the artwork and how it’s being created, plus [interacting] with the artists for different ideas and different techniques,” Darel says.
Yurov, who spoke to The Runner using a voice-to-text translation app, used the event to work on an oil painting of a woman drinking from a small pail bucket.
Yurov credits his wife Halare, who is also an artist, as his “muse” and source of inspiration for his artworks. Among candid people and portraits, he also paints cityscapes, inanimate objects, and replicas. But he started out with capturing nature.
“I’ve been drawing since childhood. I lived in the village and loved to climb on the roof and draw landscapes,” Yurov says.
“[It was] a small house, and you could easily climb onto the roof and there were beautiful views. [I] liked to go to the river and draw water, how the river flows, how trees grow.”
Painting live for other people is not an unusual experience for Yurov, because he teaches studio painting and drawing.
“It’s not difficult for me, because in Kyiv where I lived, … [I] taught art school and painted with [my] students.”
Being a feature artist for the live painting event was not the first time Yurov has had his work presented in the gallery.
A customer recently bought his replica of Austrian artist Gustav Klimt’s painting “The Kiss,” which was displayed in the gallery. He made the replica using oil paint, Swarovski crystals, and thin sheets of gold, sliver, and copper.
In addition to Canada, Yurov’s artwork is in the private ownership of collectors from 18 other countries spanning four continents, according to the gallery website.
Halare’s artwork is also at the gallery. She currently has a mixed-media artwork of clay on canvas displayed and up for sale.
Yurov and Halare’s connection to the gallery stems from visiting their son who lives in Vancouver.
“We came here to our son four years ago and visited the Vancouver gallery. We met the [director] and got to know him,” Yurov says.
“He speaks several languages, including Ukrainian and Russian, so we had no difficulty in communicating with [him].”
Yurov and Halare are back in Vancouver to see family and have their work presented at the gallery, but because of the war in Ukraine, they are currently living here.
“A lot of their property’s been destroyed. They’re here now, but his wife is going back, I believe next month. They came in to visit their son and their grandchildren …. Plus, they [needed] to escape at that time because of the war that’s going [on] in Ukraine,” Darel says.
The gallery’s live painting and sculpting events feature a different artist every Saturday until Sept. 2.
For more information, visit www.vancouverfineartgallery.com/live-painting-and-sculpture/.
