Olha Chechulina

Painting through nature, movement, and presence

Ericeira, Portugal

Works

Shown at their relative size.

Olha Chechulina in her studio — Olha Chechulina · Ericeira, Portugal

My creative practice begins with experimentation. I explore the interaction of light, water, and pigment, allowing them to create their own dialogue on the canvas. What if I painted with tree branches? What if I mixed earth with paint or poured tea onto the surface? I create a space of freedom, where there is no need to control every gesture and where forms can emerge on their own.

Portugal has become my creative home, a place that has opened up new possibilities within my practice and given me the energy to create. Today, I work on my paintings in Portugal, by the Atlantic Ocean.

Nature is my main guide. I observe it, feel its rhythms, and allow it to create through me. Sometimes my works emerge from what I see during meditation, and sometimes from an unexpected movement of water, light, or pigment.

Each work becomes a part of my story. Each painting carries a certain state, something I want to share, pass on, and allow to continue living through other people.

Exhibition
Cora
The idea of a core — the inner centre where the outer world and the self meet.
This collection explores the relationship between the human being and the world around them. It moves through the contemplation of shells along the coast, the stillness of a pine forest, and the vividness of ripe figs. And within each canvas, there is me — the human, the observer. I am present in every natural process. In a way, all these processes are me.
- 09.09.26 – 09.10.26
- The Organic Way, Ericeira, Portugal
Workshop
Painting through nature
A one-day painting practice by the Atlantic.
We begin with a short meditation and a walk along the shore, collecting what the day offers — branches, cones, shells, earth. Then we paint with them.
No brushes required, no experience required, no right result. You leave with your own canvas and, with luck, a different way of looking.
- On request
- Ericeira, Portugal
- All materials included
Workshop
Forest painting
This practice unfolds through a slow process of observing, sensing, and painting in direct connection with the forest.
The painting develops through attention to what is present, both around us and within us. The forest becomes not a subject to represent, but a space we enter into relationship with.
- 08.09.26
- Ericeira, Portugal
- All materials included