"AFRICAN WOMAN", Original Oil Painting on Canvas Painting

Hello, I am Kateryna, from the Kyiv region, and I am (not) AN ARTIST. Even though I have seen the world through pictures my whole conscious life... Because that's probably the kind of professional deformation a director's education gives you. So, when: lots of thoughts overwhelm me, and I want to color the world around me, I pick up brushes and paints. I painted my first picture in 2014. A few days BEFORE: I was working as a director at a leading TV channel in Ukraine, but the hectic pace, night shifts turning into day shifts, then 2013... the revolution of dignity, our TV channel was guarded by special forces because it was dangerous; price hikes, checkpoints on the streets, the fear of the road between work and home; and then... the war in eastern Ukraine, the annexation of our Crimea; coming home from work when the children were already asleep, complete burnout with television, fatigue, a rented apartment, uncertainty... In a state of complete burnout, I worked for several more months until I finally heard myself... I took a vacation and started painting, immediately with oil paints on large canvases, and it truly became my special world. I was amazed at how much I needed it, as if I started drinking water in a desert... that's how I found my inspiration... I found myself surrounded by artists, felt harmony and freedom, and for the first time, I felt I was in MY PLACE. Needless to say, the lack of sales during those difficult times for Ukraine did NOT instill faith in myself or my art - neither in me nor in my surroundings. So I donated my paintings to the Ohmatdyt Children's Hospital in Kyiv... I hid my paints as far from my sight as possible... ...and returned to work in television. Stability, money, and understanding life always take precedence over creative impulses... However, the feeling of "it's mine, I like it, it attracts me" has not left me since then... So, although it took a few years, I eventually brought brushes and paints back into my life, for which I am immensely happy.