His early works of the 1980s are noted with an ascetic expressionism and were gradually replaced by firework expression determined by intensity of color and stroke.
Migration plays a part in the Timchenko’s work representing various countries, epochs, space and cultural layers, through his personal or genetic memory.
In general, Timchenko is interested in characters – whether it is Ophelia, the Sphinx, Infantas, Pontius Pilate, or a dwarf, – and is said to be an empathetic participant of the story rather than a distant story-teller.
Timchenko's works often create a whole set of contrasting characters – sad angels, tragic dancing gnomes, wonder-struck forest ghosts with childish and non-childish expressions, often decorated with roses, precious stones, and jewelry.
Timchenko often employs invention in this process of transformation: Infantas make friends with “dolls”, princes with leopards, Ali Baba with a crane, a toy horse with a childish and naïve expression gallops from one picture to another.
Timchenko realized a more literal version of this idea in 1998 in Prague, where he installed a projector at the Charles Bridge and a canvas of 8 x 3 metres beneath the surface of the Vltava river.
He touches on the themes involving a drama, strong emotions: love, death, beauty, psycho-somatic difference, risk, fear, pain.
The topic of the picture itself dictates to the painter the style which is sometimes realistic and surface patterned, and sometimes so poster-like and generalized that the image can be presented as a sign or symbol.
Therefore, in Oleg Timchenko's paintings ordinary items, objects or characters maintaining their historic or cultural context, simultaneously become inhabitants of a new hyper-real world created by the painter.