“Tavrian painting for me is light, lace-like, dynamic ornaments in azure-blue colours with flecks of sandy shades, in which there is much air, the vital energy of Southern Ukraine and protective symbolism,” says Lesia Oleksandrivna Saikovska. She is a teacher and a master of folk paintings, including Petrykivka and Tavrian.

The future master was born in Mykolaiv in 1977 and from childhood was surrounded by making, for her own aunt is Olena Korkishko, a master of Petrykivka painting known throughout Ukraine.

After finishing the children’s art school of Mykolaiv she entered Vocational School No. 13. Later she studied at the Mykolaiv branch of the Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts in the speciality “Artist-Master, Teacher of Decorative-Applied and Fine Art.” For thirty years she has worked in out-of-school education; she holds the post of head of the organisational and mass-work department of the City Station of Young Technicians of Mykolaiv and is leader of a club of decorative-applied profile. From 2018 she has been a member of the folk creative association “Prybuzhzhia,” and from 2022 of the NGO “Cultural and Artistic Association ‘Art-Temptation’.”

Saikovska Lesia at the annual December fair “Tavryka Unites!”, 2024

She became interested in Tavrian painting in 2021 thanks to Liubov Paraniuk, after attending several of her masterclasses. She worked much on her own, studying the technique from the educational and methodological handbook Tavrian Painting by Ruslana Sikalenko and Liubov Paraniuk.

Today her body of work includes dozens of ornamental and narrative paintings. Here, in On the Sails of Freedom, a boat races through wind and waves; Berehynia of the Night guards sleep and peace; and The Easter Bird carries on itself the principal symbol of the feast — pysanky painted with “Tavryka.” Among the artist’s favourite symbols are those without which the painting of the Mykolaiv Region cannot be imagined: Berehynia, lighthouses, various birds over the waves of rivers and of the Black Sea, sea creatures, waves. Each of her pictures is filled with air, energy and movement forward.

“What inspires me to create the paintings is the beauty of the south of Ukraine, our rivers, steppes, boundless sky,” the artist says. “And also the thought that one must give every effort to keep our traditions for the sake of generations to come. Conversation with like-minded masters of Tavrian painting, shared projects, interesting events and exhibitions also strongly motivate me toward making.”

The works of Lesia Saikovska are an adornment of many artistic initiatives, festivals and exhibitions. She has more than once taken part in projects of the Public Organisation “Adult Learning and Education Center ‘South’” and of the Cultural and Artistic Association “Art-Temptation,” among them the exhibitions Tavrian Painting: Life Despite the War, On the Waves of Sea and Steppe, Territory of Paintings, the projects Lights of the South. People-Lighthouses and Identity of the Mykolaiv Region, the event On a Wave of Beauty, and others.

Quartet of decorative compositions Wings of Tavria, 2026

She has also designed sketches that entered the handbooks Embroidery Based on Motifs of Tavrian Painting. The Mykolaiv Rushnyk. Issue 2 and Embroidery Based on Motifs of Tavrian Painting. The Mykolaiv Vyshyvanka. Issue 3. Lesia Saikovska cooperates actively with city and regional institutions of education and culture; she presented her works at the Tourist Information Centre of Mykolaiv (February–March 2025), at the forum-fair of craft production of Ukraine at the Mykolaiv National Agrarian University (September 2025), and elsewhere.

Sketches for embroidery based on motifs of Tavrian painting by L. Saikovska