Hello! My name is Vitalina Mukhina - I am a Ukrainian artist and architect designer.
I was born in mid-August 1987 in Belarus in the family of a Ukrainian military man. In 1991, our family returned to Ukraine and lived in the city of Kharkov. All my childhood I loved to draw, at school I drew posters for holidays and wall newspapers, dreamed of becoming a fashion designer. From 2001-2004 I studied at the Physics and Mathematics Lyceum, where I decided to study to be an architect. Of the school subjects, I especially liked drawing and geometry, I also loved creativity with my hands - knitting, sewing, crafting and sculpting.
In 2004, I entered the Kharkov National University of Construction and Architecture, the Department of Innovative Technologies for the Design of the Architectural Environment. The training was quite easy, I really liked all the graphic and creative tasks. My favorite subjects were design and pencil drawing. Unfortunately, oil painting was not taught and I mastered it after graduating from university. In 2010, I graduated from university and started working as an architect designer at the architectural bureau "AKB Praktik". It was a wonderful time - I really liked the job, although it was difficult. There were a lot of interesting projects in the development of which I participated, among them were cinemas, restaurants and hotels, residential buildings and office spaces. Since 2015, I have been working as an independent designer in collaboration with the construction company Realstroy, where I was mainly engaged in the design of living space of apartments and houses. In 2017, I plunged into the world of oil painting. My boyfriend Alexander (then my future husband) gave me an easel, canvases, paints and brushes, in general, everything an artist needs for creativity. He knew that I wanted to paint, but something always got in the way, there was always a lot of work and little free time. At first, I painted my works at home, the size of the canvases was small and there was a fear of a white clean sheet. My first work was a landscape with snow-capped mountains and a green valley. At the beginning of 2018, I started painting in the creative environment of the 61 studio art studio. Many works were painted there, including those sent to auction. 2018 and 2019 were very productive, I painted most of the paintings during this period. I also started receiving my first orders for paintings. During this period, I also started painting walls in the interiors that I designed. These were mainly geometric patterns, simplified illustrations, silhouettes and lettering. At the end of 2019, I took part in the pinacotheque, which was organized by the Atlant company together with Caparol and received the main prize for a painting made of building materials. It was an interior abstraction 1 * 1 meter, the idea of which was a coral reef. The following year, I also took part in the pinacotheque 2020 "light the light", presented two of my works made of building materials, which were also noted by the jury members and received awards. 2020 was a difficult year for my creativity, as I lost my mother. In 2021, I became a mother of a beautiful daughter Ksenia, this year was spent in worries and fuss. There was very little time for oil painting, and I switched to watercolors and pastels. 2022 brought war to our country, and I was forced to leave Ukraine with my daughter for Germany. There, we spent 8 long months without my husband, without family and friends. During this time, I painted 2 oil paintings - "peaceful sky" and "carps". Painting distracted from all problems and thoughts, art helped to cope with longing for home and family. In November 2022, my daughter and I returned to Ukraine, but not to our native Kharkov, unfortunately it is still too dangerous there. Now my family and I live in Bulgaria near the sea and I started painting again. I feel how my worldview has changed and my works will no longer be the same, but I believe that everything will be fine. Beauty and creativity will save the world!
