Abstract: The article contains materials about the work of St. Petersburg artist Yulia Vasilievna Gusarova, a master who creates works in different materials and techniques and has her own theme, manner and style. The purpose of the article is to determine the foundations and nature of creativity, to track the dynamics of the personal development of a hereditary artist. She is multi-faceted and is successfully realized in the art of painting, in mosaics, in ceramics, in textiles, in scientific and pedagogical activities. The main themes of her work: stories from the history of culture and art, travel impressions, the world of the sea and marine life, the fantastic world of the medieval "bestiary" and modern technology. The article presents examples of her works, describes their semantic content and artistic merits, notes theoretical and methodological-pedagogical aspects of the problems of art and art education. The materials of the article have novelty, because they are offered for publication for the first time. There was no scientific study of Y. Gusarova's creativity in domestic and foreign art criticism. The results and research methods in this article can be useful in art criticism for use in writing monographic works about the work of other artists, as well as for creating a complete picture of the features of the work of domestic ceramic artists of the XX - XXI centuries.