Галина Стельмащук • Марія Гарасовська-Дачишин

134 with a small hatchet in his right hand performs a high jumping dance over the bonfire during the spirited and high speed “Arkan” dance. In the background of the painting we see expressively painted green-blue mountains with a gleam of fire and a bright full moon, shining through the red air, lit by fire. The painting is saturated with harmonically coordinated bright colours. Another large sized painting “Ukrainian Folk Art” (1960) is more proof that Maria was a scholar of folk art, crafts, habits and rites of the Ukrainian people. It is painted in oils. The composition consists of an image of a young woman with two children. The woman is a symbolic depiction of the Ukrainian young mother. They are dressed in Ukrainian national costumes. The painting is filled with a variety of objects, representing typical Ukrainian handicraft. The artist included many objects of everyday life: carpet, ceramics, carved shelf, icon decorated with an embroidered towel, church, flowers and even meals. The painting is an adornment of the Ukrainian National Museum in Chicago. It is exhibited in the central place and warms the soul of Ukrainians, while showing visitors Ukrainian culture and traditions. A wide-frame painting “At Sea” (1965) is composed in a different way. We see a calm blue sea and the green shore on the left. The composition contains many figures at a sea shore on a summer day. A big group of people swims in the sea, another group of people engages in conversation. Others sit calmly reading or looking at the sea. Children play in the sand. In the foreground we see a man sitting on the sand, his torso is turned to the viewer. He is quite worn out by the sun, in his hand he holds a bottle of water. The composition consists of many grounds. Only a great master is capable of combining six grounds in one painting. While the painting “Wild Hutzulia” is characterized by action and movement, “At sea” is filled with calmness and tranquillity, with tanned figures resting and the quiet range of colours. Wide energetic brush strokes are absent, like some paintings by the artist. In this calmness we see rich colours and their tints. A great part of Maria Harasowska-Daczyszyn’s art legacy consists of portraits. She started to paint portraits when she was in Krakow and in Tchev, Poland. Unfortunately, her early portraits were lost during the war. Her background from a family of priests