Debra Li

ONE of the most influential contemporary painters in Ukraine, Mykhailo Guida, is in town to exhibit 48 of his oil paintings at the Artron Art Gallery.

Under the title “My Oriental Love,” the exhibition includes portraits and landscapes, some based on the artist’s impressions of Chinese people and scenery.

Born of a Cossack family on the banks of the Kuban River in the winter of 1954, Guida inherited his gift for art from his father who could paint and also play a variety of musical instruments.

“My father hoped I could learn music and had not been supportive of my interest in painting,” the artist recalled.

However, the young Guida saved his pocket money to buy paints and brushes. After graduating from a local art school at 19, Guida spent two years in the army, where he occupied all his spare time painting. He sketched out portraits for his friends and sketched landscapes while being deployed to border territories.

In 1976, Guida was enrolled by the State Kiev Art College and furthered his studies in oil painting. One of his historically themed paintings won a national gold prize offered by the USSR in 1982, and he became a teacher at his college after graduation.

A versatile artist who is also skilled in watercolors, print and sculpture, Guida’s main focus is on oils.

The artist first came to China in 1996. With a studio in Hangzhou, the artist has held quite a few exhibitions in East China’s Shandong, Shanghai and Zhejiang. He has gone sketching in the picturesque villages in the Yangtze area.

“I love Chinese ink paintings, especially the use of different ink colors and leaving blank areas. You can see the Chinese philosophy in the paintings,” he said.

“An artist has to learn to forget. He or she has to discover new things and experiment with them.”

The artist said his paintings are like his children, but he will part with them when they are created. “Each of them has its own life. Some end up in a museum or gallery, some go on traveling around the world on exhibitions, and some may stay on the wall of an office and face the other blank walls all their lives. I hope they can get into the hands of those who love art and can stop from time to time to look at them,” he said.

Guida paints in a modern style. His paintings are decorative, dramatic and full of fantasy and Oriental flavor.

The expatriate American artist, James McNeill Whistler, who spent most of his life in London, said an excellent piece of work should beguile others as an effortless job completed in one stroke.

This is also the belief of Guida, whose works sometimes may leave an impression so casual as if they were unfinished.

Guida also inherited a natural gift for the “authentic Chinese black” that was very popular in Europe in the late 19th and the early 20th century. Black is his favorite color, as people can see from his paintings like “Girl With Her Pet Dog” and “Lotus Blossoms” on exhibition now.

People may also see the influence from the Netherlands’ Johannes Vermeer in Guida’s work. Not only are both artists expert in the use of cold colors, but they also rejoice in presenting mundane incidents and simple people around them. However, everything in Vermeer’s paintings is still an impression of life, while in Guida’s works, things seem to be in eternal motion.

“My works are not strictly impressionist. The impressionist painters sketch out their landscape or portraits, using splendid and dreamlike colors to reflect the miraculous effect of light. I would paint back in my studio based on my memory of the scenes,” Guida said.

Most of his works are in collections in museums in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kyodo as well as in the hands of individuals around the world.

Guida offered an on-the-spot painting session for visitors over the weekend. The weeklong exhibition will last until Sunday.