HALYNA VAKULENKOVisual Artist | Oil Painting | PhotographyCanada
Contemporary artistic practice exploring landscape as a perceptual construct shaped by memory, light, and lived experience.
ARTIST STATEMENTHalyna Vakulenko's artistic practice explores landscape not as representation, but as a perceptual field where memory, emotion, and time converge. Drawing from her own photographic archives of travel and lived environments, she transforms observed reality into painterly experiences rich in atmosphere, light, and chromatic resonance.
Rooted in the post-impressionist tradition while embracing a contemporary visual language, her work investigates light as both a material presence and a structural force. Rather than merely illuminating the image, light becomes an active agent of transformation, reshaping perception and emotional experience. Sea, sky, and land emerge as contemplative spaces where memory and sensation continuously evolve.
Whether working with oil paint or photography, Halyna Vakulenko is less interested in documenting the visible world than in revealing the emotional presence that lies beneath it.
Her paintings move progressively from observation toward interpretation, allowing representation to dissolve into atmosphere, rhythm, and emotional resonance.
ARTISTIC APPROACHEach work begins with direct observation and personal experience before undergoing a gradual process of transformation. Photography serves as a point of departure rather than a destination, giving way to a painterly language in which atmosphere, color, gesture, and texture become the primary vehicles of meaning.
Her practice is structured around five interconnected themes:
Perceptual phenomenologyMemory as a spatial and temporal structureLandscape as an emotional and experiential fieldLight as a generative principle of transformationEmotional resonance through color and atmosphere
BIOGRAPHYHalyna Vakulenko is a Canadian visual artist and photographer of Ukrainian origin whose work explores the transformation of lived experience into perceptual and painterly space. Born in Russia to Ukrainian parents, she was raised in Ukraine and now lives and works in Canada, where her multicultural journey continues to shape her artistic vision.
Since 2016, she has studied under artist Hervé Teboul at Studio ARTEBOUL (Montreal), developing a strong foundation in post-impressionist painting while refining a contemporary approach to landscape and light.
Alongside her artistic career, she practices as a cardiologist. This dual vocation has cultivated a profound sensitivity to fragility, temporality, and the invisible rhythms of life—qualities that quietly inform the emotional and visual language of both her paintings and photographs.
Her work has been exhibited in Canada and France and presented in several international competitions. She is currently preparing her first solo exhibition of paintings and fine art photography at Maison Hélène-Sentenne in Candiac, Québec, Canada. Through light, color, and atmosphere, she seeks to create images that transcend geographical boundaries and invite universal emotional reflection.
PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY
Beyond her artistic practice, Dr. Halyna Vakulenko believes that creativity flourishes when body, mind, and spirit remain in harmony.
A lifelong athlete, she enjoys table tennis, pickleball, and golf. She is a Pan American Masters Games Gold Medalist in table tennis (2024) and Dragon Boat racing (community team, 2025), and holds the Ukrainian sports title of Candidate for Master of Sport in Table Tennis. Throughout her life, she has competed in regional and national championships in Ukraine, France, Canada, and the United States.
Her medical career has strengthened her conviction that physical health, emotional balance, meaningful relationships, and time spent in nature are essential foundations for a fulfilling life. This philosophy naturally extends into both her artistic practice and her everyday life.
For Halyna, artistic creation is a multisensory experience. While painting and photography remain at the heart of her work, she is equally fascinated by the emotional power of fragrance. Having created her own signature perfume, Phoenix, in Grasse, France, she discovered that scent possesses a unique ability to awaken memory, evoke places long forgotten, and revive emotions that words alone cannot express.
She sees fragrance as another pathway to memory—just as light shapes a painting and silence gives depth to a photograph. This multisensory perception occasionally finds its way into her artistic practice, enriching her exploration of atmosphere, memory, and human emotion.
She believes that art, like medicine, begins with attentive observation, empathy, and a deep respect for human experience. Whether through light, color, silence, or fragrance, her aspiration remains the same: to create works that resonate deeply, awaken memories, and invite moments of quiet contemplation.
LANGUAGESUkrainian • Russian • French • English • Functional Spanish
Currently studying Japanese out of a deep admiration for Japanese culture and art. She hopes to experience Mount Fuji firsthand, witness the beauty of the cherry blossoms, explore museums and discover the masterpieces of Hokusai, and one day share her own artistic vision with the Japanese people. Learning Japanese is, for her, a way of making that future journey richer, more meaningful, and more deeply connected to the culture she wishes to discover.
If invited to artist residencies in Italy or China, she also hopes to learn Italian and Mandarin in order to converse with local people, discover their traditions firsthand, and allow each culture to become an authentic source of artistic inspiration.
She believes that every new language opens not only a new way of communicating, but also a new way of seeing the world.
SELECTED SERIESInfinity BayNew HorizonsSongs of the SunAndean SpiritFuji: A Promise in Bloom
EXHIBITIONS & RECOGNITIONGalerie Ambigu — Canada (2025–2026)Art in Cantal — France (2025)Galerie Lenoir — Canada (2026)
Upcoming Solo Exhibition (in preparation)
Maison Hélène-Sentenne
Candiac, Québec, Canada
Invited Jury Member
Symposium Courant d'Art
Ville de Candiac, Québec, Canada
June 2026 (Outdoor symposium cancelled due to severe weather conditions.)
Arte Laguna Prize
International Competition Participant
2025 • 2026
CLOSING STATEMENTThrough painting, Halyna Vakulenko explores landscape as a living space where memory, light, and perception intersect. Her work invites viewers into a contemplative experience in which the visible world becomes a reflection of inner transformation, revealing the quiet dialogue between place, time, and human emotion.
Her paintings capture the light of the world. Her photographs reveal the silence beneath it. Together, they are two paths leading toward the same destination: the human soul.
