Background
Primachenko was born in Bolotnia, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire (now Bolotnya, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine), on January 12, 1908. Primachenko’s mother and grandmother were skilled embroiderers.
Maria Primachenko with her work.
Primachenko was born in Bolotnia, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire (now Bolotnya, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine), on January 12, 1908. Primachenko’s mother and grandmother were skilled embroiderers.
Maria Primachenko was taken ill with polio in her childhood. This grave illness affected the girl's whole life. Nevertheless, at an early age, she was engaged in painting, Primachenko painted the interior of her home and of her neighbours.
Maria Primachenko’s artworks caught the eye of Tetiana Floru. In 1936 she was invited to join the experimental workshop of the Museum of Ukrainian Fine Arts in Kyiv. She became a prolific artist and involved in drawing, embroidery and painting on ceramics. In 1936 she participated in an exhibition of folk art.
Her paintings usually depicted fabulous mythological beasts, which took their roots in folk legends as well as fairy-tales, fostered bу real life and Ukrainian culture. Her works can be subdivided into thematic, symbolic and ornamental pieces. All of them are characterized by a subtle and fluent rhythmical arrangement. Her latest paintings usually impressed by their courageous decorativeness of form.
Maria Primachenko aspired to the world of fairy-tale and mystery: her birds, beasts and plants interact on her pictures just as harmoniously and naturally as they do in the real environment. The artist often used her beloved device of personification: she depicted fabulous animals with large eyes with a trim of eye-lashes. The constant struggle between good and evil penetrated all of Pryimachenko's artworks, where good always triumphed. In 1986 she produced artworks illustrating the accident at the Chornobyl Atomic Power Plant.
The painter resided all her life in Bolotnya, having no desire to leave. It was apparently Bolotnya with its picturesque surroundings, its lifestyle, customs and traditions that determined the directions of Primachenko's art. Moreover, Primachenko was also a poet, so she wrote captions to her own pictures. These captions were very melodious and easy to remember. Maria Primachenko was also well-known as an illustrator of children's books, she produced illustrations for The Crane and The Stork Takes a Shower by Mykhailo Stelmakh.
This Beast Went A-Cacthing Sparrows
Ukraine Blooming
By Beloved Plows the Field
Menagerie
A Cow Like That Gives 5,000 Liters a Day
October Flowers
Ukrainian Dancers
Ukrainian Dough Looks Into Every House
Young Magpie Catches a Grub
Tiger Laughs
Corncob Horse in Outer Space
Savage Hump-Shaker
Wild Bull and Raven Are Friends
An Outer Space Memory
Monkey Riding a Four-Headed Beast
Beaver
Dear Soviet People, Congratulationson the Anniversary of Great October
Dear Cosmonauts, I Give You These Red Poppies
Tablecloth
Godfather Brings a Calf to Godmother
Magpie in Roses
Shepherds
Another Beast Has Run Into Flowers
An Outer Space House Where Cosmoc Soldiers Spent Six Months
Ukrainian Bull, Three Years Old, Went Walking Through the Woods and Garners Strength
May That Nuclear War Be Cursed!
A Dove Has Spread Her Wings and Asks for Peace
Two Pigeons Drank Water by a Windmill and Ford
Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko Arrives From His Exile to Flowering Ukraine
Pea beast
The threat of War
I Give You, Kyiv, These Polissia Flowers and This Bright Sun
This Beast is Making Magic
Years of My Youth, Come Visit Me
Peacock and crocodile
Lovely Spring, What Did You Bring?
Wild Cat
Two Parrots Took a Walk Together in Spring
Two Kites
The Lark
Ukrainian Milkmaids Work Hard Like Miners
A Bunch of Red Flowers on Read Army Day
Our Army, Our Protectors
Let Us Go to the Betrothal Party
Lion has broken an Oak
Father Frost Carries the New-Year Tree
Wild and Big-Eared
Spectacle "Cossack beyond the Danube"
This Ukrainian Ram Did Not Gather His Crop
This Bear Wants to Have Some Flour Milled
Elephant
Stars
Blue-Eyed Flowers
Red Poppies
Young Lion
Seagulls in the Boat
Red Snowball Tree Blooms Over a Well
I Give This Bouquet of Stars Where Children Are
Ivan Gave the Landlord a Ride in his Gig and Fell Inside
The Little Elephant Who Wanted to Be a Sailor
Maiden and Cossack Enjoying a Ride on Horseback
Maiden Plays the Lute and Waits for her Beloved
Don't Feast Your Eyes on Other People's Bread
Serpent
At the Well
Lilac
Flax Blooms, a Bride Goes to Her Groom
Two-Headed Chicken
Long-Necked and Itching
Seagull in it's nest
My dear has fallen in love with brigadier
Old woman sitting on the oven and spinning
Blue Birds in Flowers
Fairy bird – Peacock
Sun-Bird, Rye and Wheat
Rat on a journey
Black Beast
A Fish King Has Caught a Hoopoe and Is Full of Joy
Poppy
Levanna Doing Exercise
Four Drunkards Riding a Bird
May I Give This Ukrainian Bread to All People in This Big Wide World
Wild Otter Caught Bird
Black Monkey
Blue Ox
My Bouquet to Grain Growers
Green Elephant
Father Frost Carries the New-Year Tree
Ukrainian Wedding
I Give My Little Stars to Children
Forest Bird with it's Child
My Flowers To Those Who Love Peace
Flax Blooms and a Cossack Goes to a Girl
A horse in sadness
Autumn is riding on a horseback
Three Parrots on a Soldier's Grave
Vania Has Brided a Serpent by the Beard and Rides Through Town
Ukrainian Wedding
Pigeon and Dove
Dear Taras Hryhorovych, Whatever You See Here Is Yours
A Coward Went A-Hunting
This Beast Has Come Running from the Hill
Lamd Has Harnesed a Wolf
Dumplings on the Shelf
Crane Makes Friends with a Fox
Do I Love Orchards, Do I Love Forests
This Bird Looks in all Four Directions
While This Beast Drinks Poison, a Snake Sucks His Blood
Vania Gives a Flower to Halia
This Man Does Not Know How to Please a Woman
Dear Friends, I Give You the Sun and My Sunny Art
Pigeons
Ola Man and Old Woman Carry a Turnip
Lion
Two Blue Tomties - Two Sisters Walk on the Grass
Halia and cossack
A Hare's Birthday Party
I Give These Flowers Where Ivans Live
Spectacle "Cossack beyond the Danube"
Quotations: "Once, as a young girl, I was tending a gaggle of geese. When I got with them to a sandy beach, on the bank of the river, after crossing a field dotted with wild flowers, I began to draw real and imaginary flowers with a stick on the sand... Later, I decided to paint the walls of my house using natural pigments. After that I’ve never stopped drawing and painting."
Maria Prymachenko was a thoughtful and considerate person. She had compassion for nature and every living thing.
Quotes from others about the person
Pablo Picasso: "I bow down before the artistic miracle of this brilliant Ukrainian."
Maria Primachenko was a mother of Fedir, an artist with a unique style.