When students study any art (painting, sculpture, music), they study the classics, the works of the many generations of artists who came before them.  They learn their craft this way.

The same is true in pysankarstvo.  There is a lot we can all learn from the traditional pysanka. If you look at the pysanky in Manko's book, you will find a wealth of designs (1464, to be exact). The folk pysanky she shows are more modern ones, written in the late 20th century, but most are ancient designs copied from older pysanky in museum and private collections.  These pysanka patterns, passed on over generations, have been perfected, with unity of design and color and theme, in a way that few beginners (or even those of us who have been around a while) can do themselves.

Simplicity of design, no superfluity of colors, and unity of design and color are things we can all take away from the traditional pysanka. I find that, since I have been studying and copying them, my work has improved tremendously.  I only wish these sorts of resources had been available when I first began making pysanky, instead of only so much later on in my career.....

I urge students to study these designs, to write these pysanky, to learn about colors, divisions, motifs and ornamentation.  I make these resources available at my classes.

There is so much available today, compare to only 20-30 years ago. There are now books on the pysanky of Podillia, Bukovyna, the Carpathians, Pokuttia, Cherkashchyna, Chernihivshchyna and more, as well as the classic earlier books (Elyjiw, Kulzhynsky, Korduba).  Folk pysanka collections are being shared on many websites, including mine.

NOTE: Illustrations on this page are from Mytsyk and Fusyn’s “Pysanka” (pysanky from the Cherkasy region), and Kulzhynsky’s Descriptions of a Collection of Folk Pysanky (pysanky from the Poltava region shown below)

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