There are artists who search restlessly for ideas, and then there is Marina Gorelikova — for whom visions appear fully formed, like flashes of memory. “The storyline and meanings unfold before my eyes,” she says. From concept to completion, her process is less a battle with the canvas than a dialogue with it. The work shifts, evolves, and transforms along the way, but that unpredictability is exactly what she loves. Each painting becomes a story in itself — alive, intimate, and deeply remembered.
Painting with Five Colors and Infinite Feelings
Forget elaborate palettes and pretentious technique. Gorelikova prefers wall paint. With only five basic shades — red, yellow, blue, black, and white — she mixes her universe into being. For her, form and color are tools, not distractions.
Shadows and detail aren’t the point; honesty is. A dish tasted in a foreign country can morph into the portrait of a woman, while a fleeting moment can crystallize into a canvas. Her paintings are something like a personal photo album — only filtered through metaphor, imagination, and emotional resonance.
Desert Dessert | Acrylic on canvas, 150×80 | By Marina Gorelikova: A very special painting for me, carrying a powerful metaphor. In the heart of the desert, a girl sits wearing a headdress that resembles a dessert. Beside her is a small, dangerous guest — one she addresses in a monologue “I am that very oasis in the endless desert. I float above the sands, watching mirages pass me by. I am the dessert that melts on your tongue, chased by the strongest coffee. I am a gracious host. I welcome even those who carry poison in their steps. But I don’t mind, its bitterness just dissolves within me, only deepening my taste. So take the biggest spoon — and savor me while you can. Because beyond me, there is nothing but the endless, empty desert” This scene explores several intertwined themes. First of all — solitude and the impermanence of people who come and go in our lives. It reflects on the way we perceive others: sometimes letting them in, sometimes letting them pass us by like mirages in the desert. Some turn out to be nourishing, others destructive — yet even the destructive ones ultimately strengthen us, leaving us wiser and more resilient without causing real harm. There is also a reflection on egoism here. After all, such thoughts are inherently self-centered: we often imagine ourselves at the center of the world, believing everything revolves around us. But in reality, we are just as much mirages in the lives of others — arriving, departing, sometimes inspiring, sometimes disruptive. It is a complex, rather mature idea, yet it is expressed in a deliberately “childlike,” almost cartoonish manner — a reminder that all of our feelings and reflections are, in one way or another, guided by the inner child within us. And with a touch of irony, the desert scene itself can just as easily be seen as an ordinary sandbox where we once played and learned how to interact with others. Ha-ha!The Leap Into Art
Though she has painted since childhood, Marina didn’t treat art as a career until recently. Her professional life was in design, brand strategy, and art management. But eventually the hobby pushed through the cracks of her corporate world, demanding its own space. After years in a prestigious role as a brand director, Marina decided to take a career pause — stepping away for a time to give her art the space it deserved. While branding remains a passion she will one day return to, this chapter is more dedicated to painting, allowing her emotions and ideas to unfold freely on canvas.. “It’s the beginning of my artistic career,” she explains. “Not a rush toward an end, but a moment of birth — and I’m enjoying every step.”
View this post on Instagram
Shaped by Movement, Memory, and Metaphor
Gorelikova’s life has been anything but static. Half Georgian, half Ukrainian, she grew up moving between Ukraine, Georgia, and Russia — a childhood rich in impressions, often heavy, always formative. Later, she packed her life into a suitcase and moved to Bali, where inspiration struck with urgency. Her paintings carry the residue of all those displacements: sensitivity, emotional depth, and the need to translate chaos into something visual.
In works like Overthinking, metaphors take center stage. A fragile figure buckles beneath spiraling yarn piled on her head — the perfect metaphor for the weight of thoughts we weave ourselves. For Gorelikova, metaphor and hyperbole are not tricks but essential tools. They are ways to expand reality until it reveals its truth.
Green Peace | 50×100, acrylic on canvas |Embracing serenity in nature’s cradle, where stillness flows like water, and the soul finds quiet alongside a loyal companion
Milestones and First Steps
Though only at the start of her artistic journey, Gorelikova has already found pride in creating her first full collection. She has shared her paintings online, exhibited in Bali as part of the Nuano Creative City music festival, and discovered the joy of watching viewers connect emotionally with her work. For now, exhibitions and accolades are secondary to her focus: painting with intention, building a collection that feels like an authentic reflection of herself.
Emotional Minimalism
If she had to define her style, Gorelikova calls it “emotional minimalism.” Her paintings don’t attempt to overwhelm with detail — instead, they distill. Through simplified forms and colors, she captures the raw essence of moments and emotions. There is a childlike clarity in her lines, but an adult depth in her themes. What emerges is a dialogue between innocence and experience, vulnerability and strength — a reminder that the child within us never truly disappears.
View this post on Instagram
Surf, Skates, and Canvases
Today, Gorelikova calls Bali home — a place where the ocean and the streets fuel her creativity as much as the studio. When she’s not painting, she’s surfing the island’s waves or skating through its neighborhoods, chasing balance and flow in movement as much as in art. For her, surfing and skating are not just sports but extensions of her artistic process: moments of rhythm, freedom, and surrender that inevitably find their way back onto the canvas.
Freedom and inner honesty define Marina Gorelikova’s path, flowing through both her life and art. In Bali, the ocean is her refuge for surfing, while surfskating keeps her grounded and in motion on land. For her, these aren’t just sports but ways of staying in flow, embracing freedom, and rediscovering childlike wonder — impressions that resurface in her paintings. With roots in branding, she brings structure and clarity into her creative process, distilling emotions into striking simplicity. Having lived across diverse cultures before settling in Bali, she sees the world as layered and multifaceted, translating that richness into works that capture freedom, movement, and the raw beauty of experience.
A Final Word
In an art world often obsessed with perfection and performance, Marina Gorelikova’s paintings remind us of the power of simplicity. They are metaphors, diaries, fragments of memory and emotion — proof that sometimes, all it takes is five colors and a fearless heart to create a universe that feels alive.
All content courtesy of Marina Gorelikova
