« 2026. № 5 (191)

The Ethnology Notebooks. 2026. № 5 (191), 1605—1611

UDK 75.051:7.047 “324”:75.036.2] (477.52)+75.03(477.54)

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/

  • Received: 27.07.2026
  • Accepted: 21.09.2026
  • Published: ??.??.2026

WINTER LANDSCAPE STYLISTICS IN THE UKRAINIAN PLENARY TRADITION

YEFYMENKO Dmytro

  • ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-8970-3062
  • Associate Professor, Honored Art Worker of Ukraine,
  • Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts,
  • Department of Painting,
  • 8, Mystetstv str., 61002, Kharkiv, Ukraine,
  • Contacts: e-mail: dmytro.efymenko@gmail.com

Abstract. Introduction. This article analyzes the author’s own work in the genre of winter landscape painting, based on a series of paintings.

Problem Statement. The object of the study is the winter landscape of a Ukrainian village in contemporary painting, and the subject is the artist’s individual means of artistic expression and the ways in which the topographical and cultural-historical characteristics of these localities are embodied in the visual composition of the canvases.

Purpose. Purpose of work lies in defining the artistic language of the winter landscape and determining how the plein air tradition of the Impressionist vision of nature remains relevant in contemporary Ukrainian painting.

Methods. The methodological framework consists of a formal-stylistic analysis of the artist’s own works, an iconographic interpretation of winter motifs as symbols of cultural memory and the image of home, as well as a contextual analysis of the landscape as a phenomenon that takes on new meaning in the context of the country’s wartime experience.

Results. It is emphasized that the synthesis of realistic authenticity in depiction with expressive plein air coloration and a personal, confessional approach to space allows us to speak of a continuation of the Impressionist tradition under new historical conditions, when ordinary rural landscapes emerge as a significant artistic image of Ukraine.

Conclusion. The study confirms that the artist’s winter landscapes of the Sumy region continue the plein air Impressionist tradition in a living form, reinterpreted through a personal, confessional lens of author experiences. The paintings elevate humble winter village into a resonant symbol of Ukrainian cultural memory and national identity, sharpened under harsh wartime conditions and articulating collective belonging and resilience, pointing toward further research into how this approach might vary across other Ukrainian regions.

Keywords: easel painting, landscape, winter motifs, Ukrainian village, Sumy region, cultural heritage, national identity.

REFERENCES

  • Halin, V. (2015). Burynschyna: The influence of the convenience of the geographic location on the settlement of the region and the main occupations of settlements. Siverianskyj litopys, 5, 132—147 [in Ukrainian].
  • Ponomarenko, M. (2012). Dmytro Yefymenko: Painting. Simferopol: Vydavets Zherybor [in Ukrainian].
  • Lytvynenko, V.S., Trachuk, V.A. & Sherstyniuk, A.M. (2025). Peculiarities of working on the landscape at plein air in painting. Ukrainskyj mystetstvoznavchyj dyskurs, 4, 85—96. Retrieved from: rhttps://doi.org/10.32782/uad.2025.4.9 [in Ukrainian].
  • Moskvitin, R. (2024). Winter motifs in the landscapes of Tetiana Yablonska of the 1990s: Peculiarities of artistic expressiveness. Ukrainska akademiia mystetstva, 35, 175—184. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.32782/2411-3034-2024-35-19 [in Ukrainian].
  • Nemtsova, V. S. (2007). Landscape painting of Petro Levchenko. Visnyk Kharkivskoi derzhavnoi akademii dyzajnu i mystetstv, 2, 100—108 [in Ukrainian].
  • Pavlova, T.V. (2003). The domestic world in the landscape painting of P.O. Levchenko. Visnyk Kharkivskoi derzhavnoi akademii dyzajnu i mystetstv, 3, 130—141 [in Ukrainian].
  • Pobozhij, S.I. (2006). Petro Levchenko and Sumshchyna Sumy: Universytetska knyha [in Ukrainian].
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