Myroslava Boikiv is a contemporary artist based in Toronto, predominantly working with watercolour. Her work is strongly inspired by colours and forms of the natural landscape of her homeland in Ukraine, the surroundings of Canada, and the nature she encounters along her travels. Painting in watercolour nourishes Myroslava's creativity and imagination – and they often become the source of some of her large-scale multi-media artwork.

Watercolour evokes a delightful sweetness from Myroslava's childhood and art school, where her mentor Bohdan Bodnaruk first taught her how to see colour and gave her some wise life advice – "If you do not know how to paint, look at nature."

Myroslava was born in the scenic Prykarpattia, which is in the foothills of the Carpathian mountains, studied art, and received her master's degree in art in the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast in Ukraine. After her studies, Myroslava worked at the Kolomiya Museum of Folk Art of Hutsulshchyna and Pokuttya and later at the national museum "Pysanka" in Kolomyia.

After moving to Toronto, Canada, Myroslava continued making art with watercolour, textiles, and multi-media art and regularly participates in exhibitions and has exhibited in more than 20 cities in Ukraine, Canada, and abroad.

Myroslava Boikiv is currently a member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine and Craft Ontario.

You can find her work online at myroslavaboikivart.com, instagram.com/myroslavaboikivart, and facebook.com/myroslavaboikiv

ARTIST STATEMENT

Creativity is feeling, emotion, lived experience. It is self-exploration and a reflection of my inner self. Creativity is like a hunger that you need to eternally feed. Today, in the morning, I work on an icon- she cleanses my soul and my mind. At noon- I'm already embroidering in meditation, or painting a scene in watercolour. And tomorrow- the whole day I will be weaving threads into a gobelin tapestry, forgetting all about time, which passes, as a moment of blessed sweetness. And it doesn't matter who, or how, anyone may look at this, it only matters what thoughts and feelings arise for myself. To be in art- is to be in its magnetic field of dependence.