An exhibition of works by famous artists from Odesa, Merited Artists of Ukraine Anatolii and Halyna Kravchenko “Watercolor Ukraine: Odesa – Kropyvnytsky” is presented in cooperation with Odesa Regional Organization of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine on the initiative and support of the owner of the gallery “Elisavetgrad” Mykola Tsukanov within the museum art project to Artist Day “In the Artist’s Studio”. The project is aimed at popularization of the creative work of Ukrainian artists and presupposes organization of personal exhibitions and publication of catalogs with interviews and contemplations of the artists on art and life, reproductions of their works, that brightly reflect their creative searches.
    Kravchenko Anatolii Hryhorovych was born on March 13, 1956, in the Zhytomyr region. A member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine (1992).
Merited Artist of Ukraine (2012). Honored with the Award of the President of Ukraine Jubilee medal “25 years of the Independence of Ukraine” (2016) and Medal of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine “Laureate of the Award named after Tetiana Yablonska” (2019). Deputy head of Odesa Regional Organization of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine.
    Graduated from the State Art College named after M.B.Hrekov (1975), specialty “teaching of technical drawing and drawing”, pedagogues M.A.Pavliuk and Merited Artist of the Ukrainian SSR H.M.Pavliuk, and from Ukrainian Polygraphic Institute named after I.Fedorov, now Ukrainian Academy of Printing, Lviv (1991), specialty “graphic art”, pedagogues A.I.Popov and V.M.Hurmak, graduation project: “A flip-calendar “Sources of memory” that presented 13 easel watercolor papers with outstanding architectural monuments of Ukraine, published in 1993 by photo art magazine “Svitlo i Tin” in Lviv. Works in watercolor, painting, monumental painting, book graphic techniques. Favorite genre is landscape.
    Kravchenko (maid name Zakharova) Halyna Borysivna was born on Fevruary 25, 1958, in Odesa. A member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine (1992). Merited Artist of Ukraine (2011). Honored with the Order of Princess Olha of the 3rd degree (2016) and 2nd degree (2018).
    Graduated from the State Art College named after M.B.Hrekov (1977), specialty “teaching of technical drawing and drawing”, pedagogues T.I.Yehorova, and with honors from Ukrainian Polygraphic Institute named after I.Fedorov, now Ukrainian Academy of Printing, Lviv (1990), specialty “graphic art”, pedagogues A.I.Popov, S.I.Ivanov, V.M.Hurmak. Works in watercolor, painting, monumental painting, pastel, book graphic, and political posters techniques. Favorite genre is still life.
    Anatolii and Halyna Kravchenky between 1994 and 2012 participated in the restoration of the wall paintings of Opera and Ballet Theatre, Philharmonic, and important cultural buildings in Odesa.
    Since 1979, active participants of regional, Soviet, republican, and all-Ukrainian, and since 1986 of international art exhibitions, including the ones within the International Festival of Watercolors in Fabriano in Italy; are members of the organizing committee of all-Ukrainian and International exhibition “Sea of Watercolors” (since 2016).
    Numerous collective art exhibitions were shown in Odesa, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Ochakiv, Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, Simfiropil, Chernihiv, Kropyvnytskyi, as well as in Germany and other countries. The works are kept in the collections of Odesa Art Museum, Museum of Western and Eastern Art, Museum of Modern Art, and House-Museum of M.K. Roerich, Mykolaiv Art Museum named after V.V.Vereshchehin, Voznesensk Art Museum named after Ye.A.Kibryk, Ochakiv Museum of Marine Art named after R.H.Sudkovskyi, Transcarpathian Regional Art Museum named after I.I.Bokshaia, Mariupil Municipal Center of Modern Art and Culture named after A.I.Kuindzhi, Black Sea Museum of Fine Arts named after O.M.Bily, Izmail Art Gallery, Simferopil Art Museum, Chernihiv Art Museum named after H.P.Halahan, Lviv Museum of History of Religion, Bilhorod-Dnistrovsk Local History Museum, Museum of Hetmanate in Kyiv, Regional Art Museum and O.O.Osmerkin Art-Memorial Museum in Kropyvnytskyi, art museums in Russia, Turkey, Romania, Canada, and also in private collections in Ukraine, the USA, Germany, Italy, Israel, Canada, Russia, Turkey, Poland, France, Great Britain.
    Organization of the current exhibition of works of Merited Artists of Ukraine Halyna and Anatolii Kravchenko in Kropyvnytskyi is not a coincidence because Anatolii Kravchenko has visited our town for many times, participated in different art plein airs – “Art Plein Air – 2017” dedicated to the 125th anniversary of O.O.Osmerkin (2017) and the National festival “Kropyvnytskyi” (2018).
    “It is a wonderful town for me, with great architecture. I was impressed by it. You can paint here for years and decades and still find new emotions and motifs. It is as if you are in some Italian or German town; the town, the historical center, in particular, has European architecture and friendly citizens with a great sense of humor. And you feel great here.” Anatolii Kravchenko mentioned in the interview to the exhibition catalog.
    About 50 watercolors by Anatolii and Halyna Kravchenky created between 2003 and 2019 are presented at the current exhibition. They brightly reflect the genre preferences and peculiarities of the individual artistic style of each painter.
    Anatolii Kravchenko’s landscapes impress with cosmic unlimitedness of natural space and images of historical memory that is preserved in architectural gems of the past centuries. Halyna Kravchenko’s still lifes often turn out as space compositions with landscape motifs; they attract with the fresh emotions, fascinate by poetic manner, and philosophical aspect, which is expressed by simple motifs resembling molds of everyday life.