The New Indian Express ·
Belarusian artist seeks to paint a ‘home’ in Kerala
Maryia Rybchyna was never exactly looking for a new home. However, as she sat on a boat, enjoying the raw beauty of nature in Poovar, her eyes caught a pair of wings in the sky.
An eagle. Free and fantastic, flying in circles.
“I began crying. I was suddenly overwhelmed,” says the Belarusian artist.
“I was in China for 16 years, but I never saw an eagle there. China is a very large country, and I travelled extensively there. I even climbed many mountains. But I was never able to see an eagle. But here, on my first day in Kerala, I was able to see that majestic bird.”
It is not that she felt a close kinship with the eagle, or that she had been fascinated by the bird since a young age. It was the spontaneous sighting of something she had never seriously thought about until then that made it special.
“I decided to make Kerala my home then,” says the artist, whose works are now on display at Durbar Hall in Kochi as part of a group exhibition titled ‘Ray of Hope’.
Maryia is a self-taught artist, who seriously picked up her brushes when she was 25. “In Belarus, my parents discouraged me from painting.Once, they even threw away my paints and brushes. I was scared to paint,” Maryia recalls.
When she got a scholarship to China while finishing her BA in Philology and Chinese, she took the opportunity and never looked back.
What followed was 16 years in China, first as a student and later as an English language teacher. It was there that she once again started painting.
“Art is like meditating. Always led by my own imagination. But as an oil painter, I have to follow a strict schedule, like a project. And I like that structure,” she says.
China never felt like home, she adds.
The spiritual seeker in her brought her to India. “I am also a yoga instructor. That is what took me to Rishikesh,” she says.
Maryia has been exploring themes based on Hindu philosophy, the concept of Advaita, Buddhism, and nature. “I definitely feel closer to Buddhism. But I don’t want to constrict myself to a particular religion,” she says.
She adds that her current focus is on making art that’s heart-warming, something that elicits a smile.
“After a hard day at work, we all want to relax, don’t we? That’s what my art does. So, the main themes I explore are happiness, peace, calm, and harmony. People who buy my art all say that it just makes them feel good looking at it. And hearing this makes me satisfied,” she says.
Maryia, who spent a month in Uttarakhand before visiting Kerala, moved to Kochi in July. “It’s not just the eagles, the green of Kerala, the waters, the beach, or the people, who are always welcoming and kind... I am happy here,” she smiles.
In between her art, she still teaches her Chinese students English online.
“Slowly, I will start something here too. I am now here in Kerala with my cat. Soon, I want to find myself a Malayali husband and make my own home here,” she says, with a chuckle.