Artists from across Ukraine made pilgrimages to Polina Rayko’s home, which many fear has been destroyed after Kakhovka dam collapse
Polina Rayko only took up a paintbrush aged 69 and her only canvas was the walls of her modest village home. But in just six years, she created a national treasure, and became an icon of folk art in southern Ukraine.
That house, decorated with images inspired by the rich natural life of the floodplains that backed on to Rayko’s garden, is the latest casualty of the Kakhovka dam collapse.
