We consider a time discretization of incompressible Navier-Stokes equations with spatial periodic boundary conditions in the vorticity-velocity formulation. The approximation is based on freezing the velocity on time subintervals resulting in linear parabolic equations for vorticity. Probabilistic representations for solutions of these linear equations are given. At each time step, the velocity is expressed via vorticity using a formula corresponding to the Biot--Savart-type law. We show that the approximation is divergent free and of first order. The results are extended to two-dimensional stochastic Navier-Stokes equations with additive noise, where, in particular, we prove the first mean-square convergence order of the vorticity approximation.