Petrykivka, Dnipro region · UNESCO 2013
A Petrykivka brush is loaded with two paints at once, and the stroke it lays carries both along its length. That stroke came down from Tetiana Pata to her student Vasyl Sokolenko, from him to Andrii Pikush, and from him, at the kitchen table, to his daughter Oksana. This is where it is kept, explained and taught.
The technical signature
perekhidnyi mazok · the transition stroke
The painter charges one brush with two pigments and pulls a single stroke. The colour changes inside the mark itself, so a petal turns from carmine to ochre without a second pass and without a line where they meet. Petrykivka painters work straight onto the surface with no drawing underneath, which is why this one move carries so much: there is nothing to correct it against.
The berries are set with a fingertip. The finest lines are drawn with a sharpened stem of marsh reed. The brushes are made by the painters themselves from soft animal hair bound to a stick — and every class Oksana Pikush teaches in Canada is painted with brushes carried over from Petrykivka.
The full glossary of named strokes →
The line
Petrykivka is transmitted by hand, from one person to the next. This platform is run from inside that transmission, at its current end.
Тетяна Пата · 1884–1976
The teacher the school came from
She painted the walls and the paper sheets of Petrykivka before anyone called it a school, then taught the first formal class in the village. Nearly every master working today traces a teacher back to her.
Source ↗Василь Соколенко · 1922–2018
Her student, who taught for seventy years
Pata's pupil, and the last of her direct students to still be working in the 2010s. He died at 96. Among the people he taught were Andrii Pikush and Maria Pikush.
Source ↗Андрій Пікуш · b. 1950
People's Artist of Ukraine · Shevchenko Prize 2025
Born in Petrykivka, taught by Sokolenko, and since 1991 the founder and chairman of the Centre of Folk Art “Petrykivka”. Merited Master of Folk Art in 1981, People's Artist of Ukraine in 2013, the Kateryna Bilokur Prize in 2009 and the National Taras Shevchenko Prize in 2025.
Source ↗Оксана Пікуш · Petrykivka → Canada
His daughter, taught at the kitchen table
Born and raised in Petrykivka and taught the craft at home by her parents, Andrii and Maria Pikush, together with the master Ivan Dmytriuk. She paints interiors and murals, and she teaches — bringing handmade Petrykivka brushes to every class she runs in Canada.
Source ↗What this place does
The history, the tools, the pigments and the named strokes, written with a source under every claim. The glossary gives each stroke its Ukrainian name and shows how the hand makes it.
Read the tradition →The first stroke is free and takes twenty minutes. After that there are classes for children and adults, online and in person, run by a master born in Petrykivka.
Take the first stroke →Interiors, murals, objects and brand work, painted by hand and signed by the person who painted them. Briefs, rights and lead times are settled in writing before anyone picks up a brush.
Start a brief →The people taught by Pata's own students are in their eighties and nineties. The Living Archive films them painting and talking, in Ukrainian, with the footage kept open for museums, schools and researchers.
See the archive →Patrons, sponsors, foundations and institutions fund the filming, the teaching and the open reference. Every tier says plainly what the money does and what comes back.
See how to help →
The part with a clock on it
Vasyl Sokolenko, Pata’s pupil and Andrii Pikush’s teacher, worked until he died at 96. The generation he taught is the last that learned in the village before the factory, and much of what they know has never been written down or filmed. The Living Archive exists to record them painting and talking, in Ukrainian, while that is still possible.
Launch list
Mail goes out when a master’s page is published, when a recording is added to the archive, and when a class opens. Everything else stays off this list.