The main rule of Valery Chebotkin, one of the most famous contemporary artists born in Mari El, is to work from nature, constantly studying it, whether it is for a portrait or a landscape. The artist believes that only by working from nature one can improve their skills, and achieve the truth in a work of art, which is an absolute condition for great art. Valery Chebotkin earned his PhD at the Russian Academy of Arts in Kazan, becoming the first Mari painter of modern times to achieve the highest formal degree in painting and graphic arts. Chebotkin is a master of portraiture and themed paintings. He has often dedicated his artworks to depicting national history and glorifying his contemporaries. Valery Chebotkin has created a gallery of portraits of his famous fellow countrymen. In his art, he remains faithful to the traditions of academic realism.

The painting “Flowers of His Childhood” is a portrait of one of the oldest Mari artists, veteran of the Great Patriotic War Pyotr Matveyevich Malinin (1919–2009).

The knee-length portrait is painted within almost a square. The elderly artist with a palette and brushes in his hands sits in front of an easel. He is dressed in green army-cut shirt and dark trousers. On the back of the chair is a jacket with ribbon bars on the lapel. In the right corner there is a still life: blue drapery, green apples next to it, a tall glossy jug with wildflowers. The background of the portrait is neutral — it includes a wall and a part of the window sill that is visible at the upper edge.