Oksana Baczynsky

Oksana Baczynsky has embraced many careers in her lifetime: student, researcher, mother, teacher, science department head, assisting editor, and throughout each, a struggling artist. She holds a Bachelor of Science (honors), a PhD. in Cell Biology and Bachelor of Education with specialists in chemistry and biology.

Although Oksana’s training was in the sciences, she undertook to educate herself in the arts by studying at the Haliburton School of Fine Arts –Fleming College, Seneca College, the McMichael Art gallery and has taken numerous workshops with prominent Canadian artists.

Oksana’s main mediums are acrylic and watercolour. With watercolour, she finds that she can achieve a luminescent spectrum of colours and values that captures the essence of her subject matter whether it is a floral, a landscape, cityscape or a figure. With acrylics, she feels she is able to capture the rugged aspects of the Canadian landscape by using the textural aspects the medium offers. Many of her paintings are done “en plein air”.

Born in Montreal, Oksana has lived in Quebec, Manitoba and Ontario, is a long time resident of Aurora and seasonal resident of Haliburton. The Haliburton Highlands and York region are where much of Oksana’s inspiration is born. Many road trips across Canada from Newfoundland to B.C. and into the Yukon have found Oksana with sketchbook and paints in hand. As well, frequent canoe trips into Algonquin Park, Killarney and along the North Shore have also inspired the rugged northern landscapes that comprise much of Oksana’s work.

In recent years Oksana has been instructing acrylic and watercolour art classes at NewMakIt in Newmarket. Her work may be found at the Royal Rose in Aurora Rail’s End Art Gallery in Haliburton and The Georgina Cultural centre and Art Gallery in Sutton.