Every time I come to Yuriy to see his latest works I realize that I have missed the whole series of new paintings since that short time we met last. Few time seemed to pass away but the artist managed to accumulate and render many emotions onto his canvases. The common spirit unites all the paintings with each of them being unique and exceptional. The colours range from green to pink on a canvas. The fancy brushstrokes, like a sudden rain in heat, spread on the painting and you can only grasp its harmony and laws of imagery from the distance. You realized that they are not just in-between tints spontaneously put on the canvas. Warmth and energy of the painting attract and fascinate you so much that you can hardly stir a foot. You suddenly start to feel the odours of spring and a palpitation of the leaves on trees; the bright shades on the paintings do not look inappropriate anymore. You recollect that once there happened to be a day with the similar sunset, its red flames flickering on the spires like New Year’s confetti and you are much surprised that you were oblivious to it before but only now could unclose your eyes under the influence of these paintings.

 You turn your glaze to another painting. It is a different season and subject. Where does it come from? Can a man think of it inside himself and then render it in paints on the canvas? The painting seems to breathe and have its own blood-vascular system and heart. The latter gives a throb and it turns out that the painting is a new life boosted by the artist by the canvas and colour-shades.

You cannot help passing by one more painting. A woman is standing near the doors on it. Another is washing the floor; a man is in the courtyard. The scene seems to be that simple, but there is something extraordinary here. You go around the picture looking at it from different corners. Here it is – the entrance with opened doors as if somebody is being waited for! The doors turn on you, no matter which corner you look at them from. It passes the comprehension but that is the case. You would also like to go out and wait in the courtyard....

Yuriy Nagulko likes to work in peace and quietness. His studio is on the second floor of the house and the sunbeams insolate his paintings. It is easy to breathe and paint there. A desire to paint arises as a flash or a fire. One cannot resist to it. Yuiry paints passionately, he rarely stops to rest or eat – taking time out in the process is just the same blasphemy as one breaks off in a recitation.

The high performance and splendid talent meet in the artist giving birth to the extremely bright, comprehensive and philosophical artworks that impress with their power. The paintings have something in common – the deep blue colour is present in almost works. The biblical scenes attract with the look of wise blue eyes. That blue is in the rivers which reflect the sapphire skies sparkling with blue, cream and violet colours. It is a long pearl chain which you handle with affection and care.

Yuriy draws inspiration from the nature – it is so different that every time you discover something new. Yuriy likes to sit outdoors, to read and listen to the silence.

The paintings of Yuriy Nagulko are of various periods. Each season reflects a certain phase in the life of the artist, his outlook and spiritual searches. His paintings are a revelation and thus, they cannot be insincere as one cannot trick with himself. Yuriy cannot tune his creation to the up-to-date rules or fashion. They say one should depict Kyiv nowadays as it is rather popular. But if you paint on demand, you loose your feeling of the higher art.

Painting requires much of spiritual and intellectual efforts. Yuriy is always in the phase of self-improvement. His bookshelves hold the catalogues of the reproductions of the great painters, religious treatises and historical studies. They all help broaden the artist’s outlook and improve the skills - for the artist is to render his views through the paintings...

It is time for me to go. Having left the warm and welcoming house, I realized that I touched the beauty.

It is in the lap of the gods to know where the talent comes from and why it is granted to a man. There are many questions and the single answer to them is a feeling – the sense of beauty and assurance that life is wonderful. Somehow I feel it here and now.

Yuriy mentioned that once a man stood near his painting at the Kyiv exhibition looking at his works for a long time. He seemed to like them. The painter thanked the man for his interest and warm words, the latter just smiled and noted that there should be something else in the life except sausages.