Meet the Maker

Yana Barabash

By James Rayner

After knocking at an unassuming door in a quiet street in Bembridge, it’s soon opened by Yana Barabash, a talented Ukrainian artist, who has been living in this peaceful seaside neighbourhood close to Forelands Beach for the past eight months. Stepping inside, she talks us through some of her most recent works, with portraits propped up in every room and landscapes stacked neatly in the garage. Then, as we sit down by the window drinking black tea with lemon, she tells us what chain of events led to her leaving her homeland and settling (for now) on the tranquil Isle of Wight.

Yana was born in the cosmopolitan Ukrainian city of Odessa, located on the shores of the Black Sea. Once a free port, exempt from taxes, it attracted people from far and wide, creating an ethnically mixed city of Ukrainians, Russians, Armenians, Jews, Bulgarians, and Poles — 99% of whom chose to speak Russian. Yana’s mum came from northern Ukraine, close to the border with Belarus, whilst her dad originated from Horlivka (also known as Gorlovka) in the currently Russianoccupied region of Donetsk. “I grew up speaking Russian,” she tells us, “but we were a very mixed country. Now, like a lot of my friends, I choose to speak Ukrainian instead.”

From a young age, Yana was surrounded by artists, especially sculptors, and encouraged by her mum (who was friends with many local creatives) to explore her artistic side. “As a child, I imagined being a sculptor, but it became obvious in art classes that I’m really talented with colours; it was always natural for me, and I just loved to draw and paint.”

Despite her first art teacher being incredibly boring (and giving Yana second thoughts about the subject), her next teacher would prove to be an inspiration. “She was all about creativity, doing what you could with the skills you had already. We actually won a competition in Japan with the engraving techniques she taught us. First, we engraved our designs onto cardboard blocks and then printed them using different inks that my mum got from her job in book production. It was the first years after independence from the Soviet Union; we often didn’t have electricity, so we printed by candlelight, eating potatoes we’d cooked in the fireplace.”

As she grew up, Yana moved on to the Grekov Odessa Art School — the oldest arts college in the country. Here, she was pushed to do new things and paint new topics, even historic, religious, and abstract art that she really didn’t want to do. “But I was lazy. They had to push me, and actually the professor was an amazing teacher.” Before she’d even graduated, Yana began exhibiting (with works heading off to be shown in Spain, Germany, and France) and after marrying her artist husband, plenty of joint exhibitions would be on the horizon too. Her paintings soon began to sell and are now in art collections across the globe, especially in the United States — “they like Ukrainian art there; it’s cheaper.”

After separating from her husband, Yana began to travel. “Every two weeks when it was his turn to look after our daughter, I would go wherever the cheapest flights would take me, usually Italy or Greece, where I’d paint small landscapes that just about fit in a cabin bag. Later I spent time in Turkey, meeting my next boyfriend and living in Istanbul for a while. I used to like getting the ferry all the way up the coast to Sarıyer. The boat was usually empty, so I could paint in peace, and the whole journey would only cost about 50p.”

Then, on the 24th February 2022, everything changed. Just as Yana was about to fly back from Istanbul to Odessa, Russian tanks rolled across the border, beginning their attempted invasion of Ukraine. “My flight was cancelled, and I had no money left having spent every penny of my holiday budget. Luckily an Italian friend had just arrived in Istanbul and paid for my bus journey to Moldova, from where I managed to get to Odessa to pick up my daughter.”

After first finding safety in the Turkish seaside resort of Antalya, Yana applied to come to the UK, finding a sponsor from London who had just bought a home in Bembridge which was still empty at the time and awaiting renovations.

Arriving with her daughter in June, Yana has since painted landscapes of Bembridge, St. Helens, Freshwater, Seaview, Shanklin, and Quarr Abbey. Her work has been shown at Monkton Arts in Ryde and Quay Arts in Newport, with selected pieces now on sale at Aqualibrium Art Gallery on St. Helens Duver, too. “It has definitely reinspired me being here, close to the sea and wild, untouched beaches.”

Looking over her most recent works, one in particular catches our eye — the painting of a girl in black lying on the beach. “It was one super magical day in summer. I began painting the beach at Bembridge, and my daughter just decided to lie down on the shingle (because she’s a tired teenager). As she was wearing all black, it was really striking and somehow seemed related to the war and everything we’d been through, as if we had together just subconsciously created this really powerful composition.”

Asked about her future plans, Yana tells us she’ll be staying on the Island for another two years, so her daughter can finish her education, but after that… “who knows”, she says. “The war has taught me to be spontaneous, not to plan ahead, and instead embrace the opportunities to release my ideas and be free. Whilst it’s for a bad reason Brits and Ukrainians have been brought together recently, it’s a good thing they have, and I’m sure it means something important out there in the universe.”

@yanabarabash.art | yanabarabash.com