Meet Ellina Chetverikova

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ellina Chetverikova and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ellina, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I have always loved art – looking at it, making it. it was and is my biggest passion. I’ve always thought that when I am making paintings, I live deeper and with more intent. I experience things through my whole being while living a creative life. I really never wanted to do anything else. Nothing could compare with being immersed in the experience of creating something new that didn’t exist a second ago? If this is not a wonder, what is? I don’t just love the act of painting, I am overwhelmed by it. I cannot live without it. I think that the most horrible punishment for me would be to never be able to paint again. As long as I paint, I am free, I am rich, I am doing what I ought to in this universe, and I am in awe.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am an artist. I do most of my work outside on the plein air with the exception of some moments I catch with photography and then paint from the photographs. For instance, I unfortunately cannot drive and paint at the same time (or fortunately) and I see some of the most miraculous clouds and light reflections on the highway – so a camera comes in handy to document those moments to paint later.

I use various mediums (oil and watercolor) but one of my favorites is gouache. Gouache paint has always felt the most like an extension of my hands. Gouache feels so connected to me and my soul that it’s always a medium I stretch towards. I focus my attention on nature interacting with the man made world. It was always fascinating to me how much humans have built and destroyed while building. I live in the city and that’s where I find most of the inspiring content for painting. I am absolutely in love with the architecture downtown with a bit of the sky that I still see from the mountain-like tall apartment buildings.

I take every opportunity I get to travel as my personal painting expedition. Painting a variety of views helps me to get to know places quicker, more personally and deeper in meaning. I’ve always painted everywhere I went.

I’ve done 3 art residencies so far: Manifest Gallery Residency in Cincinnati Oh, Jentel Residency in Wyoming, and Megan Hunt Residency with Wrangel Mountain Center in Alaska. The biggest challenges to being an artist is finding ways to financially support your work and way of living. I spent 4 years being a full time artist and running my business and it was some of the hardest 4 years. The biggest challenge in running the business is to still continue making paintings I would want to make if these paintings didn’t have to be sold. I went through a huge burnout because of that. The best combo so far have been having part time jobs with flexible scheduling and hours for artist residencies traveling and having enough time to paint. I continue to strive for balance, everything economically changes very quickly in the world, I think just being ready for the change and being flexible has been the biggest lesson I have learned so far.

I think one of the biggest challenges being an artist, is to make art anyway – to keep making work, even if it feels like no one is looking at it – just to do it because you desire to do it. Another huge lesson I am learning is you can still be happy creating – you don’t need to be known or wildly appreciated. Kafka never published anything he wrote, however he was content and wrote everyday and he left us such a wealth. Some trees we are planting are not for us, but future generations. And sometimes we don’t know exactly what our impact on the world will be, just like they didn’t know then that we still would
be listening to Mozart.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Oh I have so many places. I love Cincinnati so much and I love good food. We have plenty of wonderful places for foodies and so much art!

These are some of my favorite places:

-Spring Grove Cemetery, I love this place and know its history really well, in fact its impossible for me to get lost in there anyone, I almost know every tree there.
– Museums; Taft Museum, Contemporary Arts Center, 21C Hotel and Museum, Cincinnati Art museum, Railord Train Station museum – lots of things to learn about the old Cincinnati in the exhibits and the libraries – our main public library is worth stopping by, there is The Mercantile Library, and Lloyd Library.
– Overlooks: Mount Adams, Eden park, Ault Park, Belleview Park, Fairview Park, Smalley Park, Alms Park, Mt. Echo Park, Mt. Storm Park.
I would show them ludlow and all the fun stuff there like shops, the historic esquire theater, and walk in the Burnett Woods park. There is also mansion row – a collection of very old beautiful houses that I would show – among them there is even a building designed by Lloyd Wright.

OTR is great. Lots of shops and the wonderful Washington park. There are lots of tours you can take including an underground tour to the subway and underground tunnels.

MOTR Pub and Woodward Theater are two of the best bar/music venues in Cincinnati and the owners involved have had a long history serving the Cincinnati music scene. They have music almost every night of the week, ranging from local acts to national touring acts and are a staple in the downtown music and arts community.

Longfellow is a great bar that serve an amazing drink called a painkiller, the bartenders there are super organized, quick and on top of their game.

Ghost Baby is a secret bar deep in the tunnels, you have to make reservations in advance there and know how to enter 🙂

Also an amazing eclectic bar with great interior of furniture and sculptures collected from around the world is Somerset

Restaurants & Coffee:

Some of my favorites are Abigail Street, Sotto, Krueger’s Tavern, Pho Lang Tang & Maize. Also Thai express in Clifton is a local staple and Gullow Street in Northside is a new favorite.

There are a plethora of amazing coffee shops & Diners as well in Cincinnati. Some of my favorites are allez cafe (amazing bakery and coffee shop), deeper roots, and collective espresso.

There’s the sugar n spice diner in OTR and Blue Jay cafe in Northside, an historic Greek owned diner that is a staple (and has been featured in some movies)
I would take them to Findley Market, one of the oldest open air markets in the United States. There are lots of shops there and two of my favorite places – ice cream shop Ugo Gelato and Venezuelan Arepa Place

I would show them the zoo and aquarium in Newport. There is also a fun German beer hall called Hofbrauhaus.

And Of course I would show my millions of painting spots that I have found throughout years.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I wanted to dedicate my shoutout to the teachers of my art school in Severodonetsk, Ukraine: Leonid Shmatko, Viktor Pogorelii, Yury Goroshenko, Ivanova Inna Yurievna – these amazing teachers were at the very beginning of my art making. It is from them that I have learned an incredible amount and the love I have developed to Plein air Painting.

I also wanted to dedicate my shoutout to my husband, Michael Oliva, an incredible musician and composer, who supported me along the way of all the adventures, nourished and enriched my life.

Website: www.ellinart.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ellinachetverikova/

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Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/ellina.chetverikova/ 

Image Credits
Image credit to the main artist photo is Michael Oliva