Galina Hitching
Art for Healing
As a visual artist and writer, I have discovered art is a gift from our Creator. Art equips us to name the darkness and then place a boundary around it. This is integral to why and how I create art.
My work is largely centered in “place,” both a longing for, and a presence with, the land of countries and cities where I’ve lived. The mystic mountains of Hong Kong, the pulsing calm of the British countryside, and even the chaos of marsh and scrublands in Florida, where I reside.
These known locations are often depicted as abstracted space landscapes, where the familiar and the unknown are intertwined.
My work also explores the presence of hope even in darkness and depicts themes of grief and transformation using dramatic colors and movement. My work is deeply spiritual and expressionistic.
Exhibitions
2025 July-2026 January
Starsighted
Theatre Winter Haven, Winter Haven, Florida
2024 May
HUMAN
Grace Commons, Boulder, Colorado
2024 April
Bittersweet, A Season of Lent Exhibition
The Bridge Church, Lakewood, Colorado
2024 April
HUMAN
Bitfactory, Denver, Colorado
2024 March
Arts & Rec!
Kelly Recreation Center, Lakeland, Florida
2023 December
Northern Skies
Lake Wales Public Library, Lake Wales, Florida
2023 November
Art Crawl
Swan Brewing, Lakeland, Florida
2023 April
REFRAME: Deconstructing Culture & Identity – Capstone Exhibit
Polk State Winter Haven Gallery, Winter Haven, Florida
2023 April
Best in Category & Purchase Award – Polk State Student Exhibit
Polk State Lakeland Art Gallery, Lakeland, Florida
2023 January
Ordinary Saints–Creativity, Collaboration & Community
Square Halo Gallery, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
2022 April
Best in Show – Polk State Student Exhibit
Polk State Lakeland Art Gallery, Lakeland, Florida
2022 February
Empty Bowls 2022, Hand Painted Bowl Fundraiser
Lake Wales Care Center, Lake Wales, Florida
2017 August
Line, Form, & Color
Art Center Sarasota, Sarasota, Florida
GRANTS
October 2025-September 2026
Polk Arts and Cultural Alliance
TEACHING & FACILITATION
2025
Healing Art workshop at The Sidewalk Project
Secondary Trauma workshop at the National Women’s Shelter Network
2021 to Current
Heart Restoration Trauma Healing Groups
6-week workshops that include teaching on the neuroscience of trauma, healing art activities, guided biblical meditations, and tools for self-regulating.
2022 November
Interactive presentation integrating brain science and art to facilitate mental and emotional support from a biblical framework.
2017 September
Paper Art Workshop at Repurpose Art Studio, Gospel Inc.
Galina Hitching may have been born in Baltimore, Maryland, but she can’t tell you anything about the city. She was blessed to be raised with a global mindset, and despite growing up in South Dakota, Nebraska, and Florida, she feels more comfortable in Hong Kong or Scotland than small-town America.
Instead of pursuing her dreams of art, Galina took a gap-year that turned into two years of volunteering with nonprofits around the world. From there, she fell into seven years of writing for nonprofits and businesses.
Today, she’s cast off the constraints of her communication degree and paints with fresh hope. Her watercolor and oil paintings explore grief and suffering, but remain anchored in light and the promise of transformation.
Her art has been exhibited in Colorado, California, Pennsylvania, and Florida. She is passionate about mental health and loves teaching people who think they aren’t creative and helping them experience the healing power of art. Galina lives in Central Florida.
