image credit: Leon James

A Ukrainian resident had her artwork on displayed at the Broughton Hub in Salford.

Tetyana Checkley was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine and moved to Salford 25 years ago. She took up art classes ten years ago to help her cope with her depression and she fell in love with the art of painting.

She started out by emulating famous paintings and realism. Her favourite real-life objects to paint were apples and flowers and she took inspiration from Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh.

image credit: Leon James

image credit: Leon James

She then transitioned to more abstract work because it helped her to deal with her emotions and, she believes, her abstract paintings cured her depression.

Tetyana takes inspiration from places she has been and things she has seen but over the last number of months the war in Ukraine has been the topic of some of her paintings.

She said: “[The painting] I am most proud of, ‘The Spring in Mariupol’, it’s what I meant, that’s what I put on the canvas exactly what I meant.

image credit: Leon James

“I love them like my children, all of them.”

Tetyana frequently uses the Broughton Hub library as she loves to read as well as print off pictures her son sends her, and this is how she got in contact with the managers.

The managers loved her art and asked her if she wanted to put it on exhibition for everyone to admire, and on Wednesday evening she went down to exhibition to meet people and fellow Ukrainian residents.

image credit: Leon James
Broughton Hub Art Exhibition

Tetyana was very happy to be asked to put her art in exhibition and she said: “I think it shows people anyone can do it; you don’t need to start from young age.

“In Ukraine I was working in a publisher, so I had nothing to do with painting, I had no time, and now I love it.

“I don’t buy anything other than food, paints and canvases; all my pension goes on this!”

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