Tavrian painting knows how to enchant — by its depth, its sincerity, its open feeling, its truth. There is no half-saying in it; everything is clear and plain. For “Tavryka” is not simply beautiful ornaments and tender colours. It is novellas that describe a person’s relation to the self and to one’s own life, to family and to people around, to nature and to the surrounding world as a whole. If your glance has lingered on it, you may be sure: it has won you.

That is how it was with Ruslana Sikalenko — a cultural figure, psychologist, manager of projects in regional branding and social entrepreneurship at the Public Organisation “Adult Learning and Education Center ‘South’,” and an expert on Tavrian painting. “In March 2021,” the researcher says, “at a friend’s invitation I came to a short masterclass in Tavrian painting given by the artist Liubov Paraniuk. The session was brief, but it opened ‘Tavryka’ for me. My favourite colour is blue, and water for me is a true source of recovery and inspiration. I fell in love with this painting at once.”

From that time Ruslana Sikalenko became the initiator and coordinator of many undertakings bound to the development of the unique painting and to the wide sharing of knowledge about it.

In 2025 she compiled the record card “The Tradition and Practice of Spatial and Utilitarian Decoration in the Mykolaiv Region: Tavrian Painting,” which was considered by the Expert Council on Intangible Cultural Heritage under the Ministry of Culture. Through the efforts of the researcher and of the team that walked beside her, the local tradition was entered in the National List of Elements of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Ukraine. A great work of study and development of the painting preceded this.

Appearances of Ruslana Sikalenko on the TV and radio company Suspilne Mykolaiv in connection with the nomination of Tavrian painting to the National List of Elements of the ICH of Ukraine, 2025–2026

Although Ruslana Sikalenko does not have a professional art education (by training she is a teacher of Ukrainian language and literature, and a psychologist), she paints finely and likes to work at the potter’s wheel. Together with Liubov Paraniuk the first steps were taken in writing programmes by which hundreds of specialists in culture and education mastered the technique of the painting on special courses. This gave confidence that the original cultural phenomenon of the Mykolaiv Region would go on living.

Works by Ruslana Sikalenko, 2026

The next stage was the introduction of the painting’s motifs into other kinds of decorative and applied art. Successful and in demand was the project concerned with the creation of contemporary Mykolaiv embroidery, and of the vyshyvanka itself, based directly on motifs of Tavrian painting.

Well-known masters of the Cultural and Artistic Association “Art-Temptation” studied the tradition of hand embroidery and experimented with techniques and compositions. On the basis of elements of Tavrian painting, embroidery schemes for men’s and women’s shirts, and for rushnyky, were designed, and presentation pieces were made. After careful analysis, the materials of this successful beginning were reflected in the educational and methodological series Embroidery Based on Motifs of Tavrian Painting, in the writing of articles and in the preparation for print of which Ruslana Sikalenko took part.

Public interest in this local kind of decorative and applied art grew swiftly. With the beginning of the full-scale invasion many Mykolaiv masters found themselves abroad. In order not to lose the bond with the Homeland, they wished to go on developing folk art and to give masterclasses in a foreign land. But theoretical preparation and a methodology of teaching were often lacking. To meet the demand for teaching materials, in 2021 the handbook Tavrian Painting by Liubov Paraniuk and Ruslana Sikalenko was issued (and republished with additions twice more). Drawing on a deep research base, the authors described the scholarly and methodological foundation and placed in the book a great number of photographs, illustrations, schemes and step-by-step algorithms.

To this day Ruslana Sikalenko’s educational and publishing work is accompanied by active public-awareness labour. She initiates the creation of exhibitions, the holding of festivals and fairs, the shooting of films; she is a fervent advocate of “Tavryka” in discussions and at round tables. Together with colleagues she presents the painting abroad (Georgia, Switzerland, Romania and other countries). In 2024 one of her dreams came true: the Workshop of Tavrian Painting opened its doors hospitably. There one may always buy publications of different years and thematic souvenirs, take part in masterclasses or other events, receive answers to every question about the painting, and enrol in a course for the study and mastery of “Tavryka.”

So, in a short span of time, thanks to Ruslana Sikalenko’s active stand, her wish to keep the identity of the land and her titanic labour over five years, significant results have been reached. From a folk tradition known to a narrow circle of specialists, Tavrian painting has become a widely known brand of the Mykolaiv Region.