Odessa Roerich Museum honoured the memory of Stepan Khimochka with an exhibition of his paintings.

Life is short, art is eternal, works survive the creator. With this in mind, the exhibition "Stepan Khimochka - Master of Light" was opened in the Odessa House-Museum named after Nicholas Roerich, timed to coincide with the author's 85th birthday.

Stepan Ivanovich Khimochka (December 25, 1937 - March 27, 2020) - a native of the village of Starokazache, Belgorod-Dnestrovsky district, Odessa region. Ivan Savvich Khimochka - the grandfather of Stepan Ivanovich, an isographer, painted churches in Ukraine and Moldova.

“In the work of the artist Stepan Ivanovich Khimochka, the appeal to nature, its beauty and harmony is natural and logical, since the attraction to beauty is inherent in life itself, striving for evolutionary development,” said Elena Petrenko, director of the museum and a great friend of the artist. - Stepan Ivanovich said: “Everything in this world - both the earth and space - is in harmony. It should not be violated. Because violations lead to inevitable consequences.”

According to Petrenko, the artist in his works tried to reflect the amazing world of the Creator, amazing in every respect, so that people could see this beauty and harmony.

In general, I am critical of my work. If a painting doesn't fit my worldview, I don't finish it. And if it works out, I strive to further develop my findings. I am sure that if you write something, then only piercingly, so that it touches the soul of a person.

You need to be able to find harmony, as they say, to get to the right point, not to dissemble before people and God, and at the same time feel your destiny. This is the difficult work of self-tangibility. All my life I have been looking for …

Stepan Khimochka

The museum director said: “in this understanding of his work, Stepan Khimochka came close to high standards of humanism, when the artist is guided in his work by the highest human values.”

The search for light is also the search for the philosophy of being and one's personal destiny. The light in the works of the artist Khimochka was originally, but with the growth of the mastery of technology and the mastery of the soul, he acquired a glow in which there is also the light of his heart. After all, it was not for nothing that Khimochka “tried to decipher Roerich’s riddles” and studied the philosophical heritage of Helena Roerich, Nicholas Roerich and Helena Blavatsky.

The exhibition presents works by Stepan Khimochka from the museum collection - 30 watercolor works (in the small hall), as well as oil painting. Passion for the work of Van Gogh, who worked to exhaustion under the scorching sun in Arles, was reflected in the luminous canvases of the Ukrainian master. Life is over, the search is over for the author. But continue for the researchers of his work.