Mila has come to Canada from Kharkov, a city in Ukraine. Her show, titled ‘Silent Dialogue with Nature’, will run from Friday, July 31 to Sunday, Aug. 30.
She has a variety of works to show visitors; acrylic paintings on canvas and wood, jewelry, pottery and greeting cards. The majority of her topics are of the natural surroundings of Hope. She has been overwhelmed with the beauty of this area in comparison to the flat and sunny plains of the Ukraine. She laughs at how she spent hours photographing every mountain, hill and stream in the area when she first arrived. She will have some ‘fantasy’ flowers, abstract and pointillism on canvas to offset the realistic landscapes. Greens and blues dominate her work, the richness of her colours is characteristic of her style.
In her teens, after school, she was fortunate enough to take private lessons from a famous Ukrainian artist. Since then, she is largely self-taught. When she travelled in Europe, she obtained images of the old masters and practiced painting them. Mila worked as an engineer for 20 years before she turned her graphic artist talents to designing ceramic tiles for factory production. She was delighted to find the Art Machine studio in Hope where she could turn her hand to making pottery, not just design.
Her message to the people of Hope is that she knows how people can take their surroundings for granted because we see them every day – but try not to forget how beautiful it is here.
You can continue to follow Mila’s works displayed at hopedistrictartscouncil.com.
Due to the pandemic, the gallery, at 349 Fort St., Hope, will only be open Fridays to Sundays, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and there will be no opening reception. The gallery is run by volunteers and operated by the Hope and District Arts Council.
For information call 604-869-3400 or email hopedistrictartscouncil@gmail.com.
- submitted by the Hope and District Arts Council