As Morski/Kazimir Skrbic writes, just several days ago, retired Ukrainian artists Lyudmila and Mikhail Rymik were living their normal lives in the familiar ambience of their home in the immediate vicinity of Stryi, a city of about sixty thousand inhabitants located in western Ukraine in the Lviv region.
It was life as normal until early March when the first smell of gunpowder from eastern Ukraine began to spread further out, reaching more western Ukrainian areas. 68-year-old Mihajlo, a retired builder, gardener and amateur painter, and his wife, Lyudmila, also an artist, made the difficult decision to leave. Mihajlo packed up his van with only some basic hygiene items and his trusty art supplies. They left their two cats and one dog in the care of their diligent neighbours and headed first to Poland, in anticipation of the greatest adventure of their lives.
”When we set off we didn’t really know where we were going. But we wanted to save our pictures and make it to Croatia, where we intended to get in touch with Marica and Mijat Barisic, whom I met in Ukraine three years ago. I only knew that they lived on the island of Vir, but I thought it was good to have someone to go to. Marica’s mobile contact from the business card she left me, I called unsuccessfully because I overlooked the fact that you need to put in the area code for Croatia,” stated Mihajlo. Their long trip through Poland, Slovakia and Hungary took them a full two weeks, and then Mihajlo and Lyudmila, after arriving in the City of Zagreb, managed to establish contact with some friends of Marica and Mijat from Vir.
”Mihajlo’s friend asked me if Mihajlo and Lyudmila from Ukraine could come to us. I couldn’t immediately remember who they were, because I hadn’t actually met Lyudmila, but then I remembered Mihajlo, with whom we hung out when my husband and I were staying in Ukraine. Mihajlo played the guitar in a castle at a gathering organised by our Association of Ukrainian-Croatian Friendship. If you’re ever in Croatia, I told him then, stop by Vir,” said Marica, remembering how one informal invitation had become fateful.
Without thinking, the pair opened their hearts and provided accommodation to the Rymiks, and Mihajlo and Lyudmila have been Vir residents with an address in the Miljkovica settlement for two weeks now. The idyllic landscape of their Ukrainian village has quickly been replaced by being on the deeply desired first row to the sea.
”It’s beautiful on the island,” said Mihajlo, for whom the blue azure of the sea was the current inspiration for the first painting – the Vir motif. The two talented Ukrainian artists arranged the paintings they’d manage to bring with them, as well as their art and painting accessories, all of which can be found on the mezzanine stairs of the family house of their friends.
In addition to the Barisic family, other Vir locals also readily helped out, and their dilapidated and broken-down van, with which they barely reached Vir, was serviced and repaired free of charge by the well-known Vir car mechanic Zivko Vucetic, and now Mihajlo and Lyudmila can drive to Zadar to visit MUP and complete the formalities regarding their current status and stay in Croatia.
In the meantime, the pair of Ukrainian artists have been offering their paintings of larger and smaller dimensions – inspired by Crimea, the Ukrainian countryside, the natural environment, but also the French masters of Impressionism – to Zadar galleries and locals. In order to make some money, Mihajlo is ready, he says, to work doing building again as a master mason, and during the summer season, both of them will try to offer their painting skills to tourists on the beaches.
”I’m willing to do anything to make the situation we’re in at least a little bit easier. We’re immensely grateful to Marica and Mijat for their hospitality, but we’d like to earn our own money and be independent. I hope we’ll be able to make a living from selling our paintings,” said an optimistic Mihajlo.
Instead of living with family in England, they ended up on Vir
”I suffer with some thyroid problems, so the coastal environment will be pleasant for my slightly impaired health due to the iodine and salt. As we’ll definitely stay here on Vir until the end of the summer, we’d like our British family to visit us. We have two daughters who live in England with their families,” said Lyudmila, explaining why the Ukrainian artists didn’t go to England to be with their daughters, sons-in-law and grandchildren, but instead chose to go on an adventure which saw them end up on a Croatian island.
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