Oksana Pikush

Oksana Pikush was born and raised in Petrykivka and learned the painting at home. Her teachers were her parents, Andrii Pikush, People's Artist of Ukraine, and Maria Pikush, Honoured Master of Folk Art, together with the master and teacher Ivan Dmytriuk. In a settlement where, as UNESCO puts it, every family has at least one practitioner, hers was the family the tradition ran through.

She works as a painter and teacher of Petrykivka art, specialising in interior décor and mural painting, and she teaches the style to children and adults. Her classes are painted with handmade brushes carried over from Petrykivka itself, which she supplies, and everyone leaves with a finished piece.

She trained in Ukraine as a violinist and took up classical vocal study at McGill University in Canada. She sings as a lyrical soprano in Ukrainian, English, Italian and French, and has worked with the Sheraton Cadwell Orchestras, the Zahrava drama theatre, the Maria Zankovetska theatre on its Canadian tour, and the Toronto choir Vesnivka.