{"schemaVersion":1,"canonicalUrl":"https://uafest.ca/family/oksana-pikush","localizedUrls":{"en":"https://uafest.ca/family/oksana-pikush","uk":"https://uafest.ca/ua/family/oksana-pikush","fr":"https://uafest.ca/fr/family/oksana-pikush"},"entity":{"name":"Oksana Pikush","alternateNames":["Оксана Пікуш","Oksanna Pikush","Oksana Pikus","Пікуш Оксана","Petrykivka painting Oksana Pikush","петриківський розпис Пікуш"],"profileKind":"artist","role":"Petrykivka painting master","tagline":"Born in Petrykivka, taught by her parents, carrying a UNESCO-listed painting tradition into Canada.","description":"Oksana Pikush was born and raised in Petrykivka, the town in the Dnipropetrovsk region that gave Ukrainian decorative painting its name. She learned the craft at home: her teachers were her parents, Andriy Pikush, People's Artist of Ukraine, and Maria Pikush, Merited Master of Folk Art of Ukraine, together with the master and teacher Ivan Dmytriuk. In a town where, as UNESCO puts it, every family has at least one practitioner, hers was the family the tradition ran through.\n\nShe trained in Ukraine as a violinist, then moved to Canada and took up classical vocal training at McGill University. She sings as a lyrical soprano — folk, popular and classical pieces in Ukrainian, English, Italian and French — and has worked with the Sheraton Cadwell Orchestras, the Zahrava drama theatre, the Maria Zankovetska Ukrainian Dramatic Theatre on its Canadian tour, and the Toronto choir Vesnivka. Her own website introduces her in three words: Singer. Artist. Performer.\n\nAlongside the music she carries on her parents' painting. 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. In her classes people paint with handmade brushes brought from Petrykivka itself, which she supplies, and they leave with a finished piece of their own.\n\nIn 2013 UNESCO inscribed Petrykivka decorative painting on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. That inscription followed a travelling exhibition of more than 250 works prepared in December 2012 by the masters of the Centre of Folk Art “Petrykivka” — the association her father organised and chairs — which opened at the European Parliament in Brussels and went on to fifty countries. The festival team puts it more directly: her father created and toured the exhibition that became the grounds for the UNESCO listing.\n\nOn Sunday, 13 September 2026 she brings the brushes to Riverside Park in Carleton Place and runs a Petrykivka painting masterclass at UAFest, at a table where anyone who sits down can paint.","city":null,"businessName":null,"offering":null,"officialLinks":{"instagram":"https://www.instagram.com/oksannapikush/","facebook":"https://www.facebook.com/panna.oksanna","youtube":"https://www.youtube.com/@Divchyk"}},"uafest":{"types":["artist"],"years":[2026],"contributions":["Masterclass"],"projects":[{"name":"Petrykivka painting classes","role":"Courses and workshops in the Petrykivka style, for children and adults."},{"name":"Interior décor & murals","role":"Painted interiors and wall murals in the Petrykivka tradition."},{"name":"Singing","role":"Lyrical soprano — folk, popular and classical repertoire in four languages."}],"relationship":"UAFest Family member"},"media":{"portrait":null,"logo":null,"gallery":[{"src":"/family/oksana-pikush/banner.webp","alt":"Name plate for Oksana Pikush, Petrykivka decorative painting, in the UAFest colours"}],"videos":[{"url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Gi7auEdsbU","title":"Ya Pidu v Daleki Hory"},{"url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqYv8Zi5CXY","title":"Vohni Lvova — with Pavlo Fondera"},{"url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cleby7S-ukk","title":"Povir Ocham"}]},"pricing":"Contact the member or business directly for current pricing and availability.","lastModified":"2026-09-11"}