IRINA
VINNIK
Irina was born on February 22, 1971 in St. Petersburg, Russia. She still lives in this beautiful city. Graduated from the St. Petersburg Architectural University Irina always proved to have great interest in Art and illustration. Even though she had her architect’s diploma she never worked in this field, instead she served herself from her architectural knowledge to construct an artistic career for herself.
In the mid-90s, she got acquainted with the computer and the internet. She was amazed by all the possibilities these tools provided to the artists.
She completed a computer course and started working as a web designer, developing flash animation and programming. Then she realized that she had nothing to say to the world in this field.
Getting to know the Internet she encountered new horizons. She found the beauty that she was seeking by looking into digitized libraries. She was attracted to old books and macro photography of insects and plants. This whirlwind of visual information forced her to create her own drawings, in which everything she saw was fused together. Gradually, drawings supplanted all her other occupations. At the beginning, she created pencil drawings of a small format. Then she started taking commissions for illustrations and working with bigger and more important canvas.
Later she created, wrote, drew and published the book "The World of Dolls, Stories and Legends". One of her most significant works. Over the years, she illustrated Andersen's tales and Shakespeare's plays for different publishers. Her career as an illustration artist was achieved.
Irina is most proud of her main project : A Series of large format calendars. There are already 9 issues of these calendars, starting in 2011. Each of them is dedicated to its own theme, and sold all over the world.
The main subject that unites her works is the desire to show the beauty of the moment in every single detail.
She feels that the Internet helped her to grow her artistic career. And the support of her followers helped her to believe in herself. All the stages of her artistic development are connected with the Internet and she feels very grateful to everyone who supports her.
Irina continues to draw, blog and inspire people through her art, she is currently working on a new calendar for 2022 while working towards her biggest dreams : illustrating her own author's deck of cards and wandering around the small European cities as a tourist once more.
Amazed by the technique and hard work of the old masters, Irina finds her inspiration in the intrinsic combinations of shapes, unexpected textures, hidden meaning and the rhythm of the ornaments, collapsing the natural world and the eclecticism art style.
Aiming to achieve an endless natural detail in each canvas, this collection of artworks takes its complexity from the heraldic shields illustrations and alchemical treatises engravings.
Working with interlaced shapes, every detail counts to add new dimensions to the graphic composition of each masterpiece. The artist wants to express her deepest desire to make
the world more beautiful by imitating the entanglements of our most wonderful teacher: nature itself.
Quoting the philosopher and dramatist ‘’Seneca the Younger’’ : All art is but imitation of nature.