My childhood was the city of Kharkov, in Ukraine, blessed with the smell of vanilla-cream doughnuts and home-made cherry jam topped with pink froth. My childhood is the taste of ‘gogol-mogol’, an egg nog the colour of liquid gold, huge chestnuts hanging overhead and the sing-song echo of the Ukrainian language. I am in my favourite dress, a light-blue, bell-shaped creation topped with a halo of pony tails and white ribbons. In one hand I hold a little yellow suitcase, the home of my “childish treasures”.

When I was 7 years old, we moved to the town of Armavir, where the austere mountains of Caucasia peeked silently into my bedroom windows. In the Spring, the mountains turned the colour of olives and ash, and the town slumbered in a cloud of snow-white blossom, throbbing with the sound of bees and birds. Summer flooded the market square with a magical carpet of fruits and vegetables: tomatoes like pulsating hearts of coral, sweet and sour cherries alternating honey-amber and blood-crimson, apricots in their golden auras, Isabella grapes glistening like sapphires, their unforgettable aroma haunting me to this day…

This was my childhood, full of colours, warmth and happiness. Life took place in school, in friendships with those young boys and girls, in my study of music and ballet, in doodling and drawing. I dreamed of becoming a ballerina, and became an artist. This was the reason for my Big Move to St. Petersburg, where I earned an education in art. This city captured my heart: the low, mother-of-pearl sky, the mingling smells of dew and lilac, the milky, restless White Nights, when the bridges lift up from the city like arms embracing the Neva River. I loved to wander the city, drawing as I went, exploring the yards and gardens where buildings from forgotten years look down on you through sleepy windows. Here, I learned to decorate fabric, studying fashion and the construction of shapes and images in clothes.

The most important events of my life, the births of my three sons, took place in this city. But it was in Sweden, in Stockholm, that I truly became an artist. Stockholm is a splendid city, which one cannot help but love for its individuality, its extraordinary sense of transparent space: the laconic architecture under a towering sky, an upturned glass bowl, a bare canvas that absorbs my every thought and feeling. It was Stockholm’s shadow that guided my creative work, as it crystallized around one simple sentiment: the love of life.

The lines of my compositions reach involuntary for eternity, mentally pushing beyond the edge of the canvas, in an attempt to encircle and pull together this world, the world I live in, and that I love!

Viktoria Tikhomirova is an established artist living and working in Stockholm. Educated at the Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg. Purchased by several municipalities, art associations and private collectors. Large number of exhibitions in Sweden and abroad.

Selected exhibitions

Heard 2ART, Steninge slott kulturcentrum

Nordic Art Fair, Sundsvall

Peace and Colour Gallery, London

Chatila Jewellery 22 Old Bond Street, London

IMAGES of St Paul’s in THE 21/st CENTURY, London, St Paul’s Cathedral

“Her extraordinary works incorporate an incredible variety of textures and styles that reflect a tremendous depth of emotion and intelligence. Her paintings transdent a love for life and appreciation of beauty in many different fields. From mysterious and enigmatic to cool and inventive her paintings cover the whole range of the artistic spectrum and excite the imagination of the spectator.” – Peace and Colour Gallery, London