Vladimir Ovchinnikov was born on 14 July 1911 in the village of Esipovka near the city of Saratov at the Volga River in a peasant family.

During the war his father worked in a slaughterhouse and his sons – Konstantin, Vladimir, and Gregory remained in the care of grandmothers and aunts.

This perception of nature, this interest to the ordinary life of the country played a large role in his growing up and in its formation as a person.

[3] In 1941–1945 Ovchinnikov took part in the Great Patriotic War, which led the Soviet people against Nazi Germany and its allies.

After demobilization, Ovchinnikov, returned to Leningrad, works in LenIZO, carries advertising and design orders for the largest shops in the city.

At the same time he restores his creative skills that were lost during the war years, many works on nature studies in the city and its suburbs (Priozersk, Komarovo, Levashovo).

In 1953, after the show at the exhibition a series of such works carried out in Ukraine, Vladimir Ovchinnikov accept as a member of the Leningrad Union of Soviet Artists.

Delighted with the beauty of the Dnieper banks, the artist painted many sketches, expressing alive, the immediate impression of a majestic image what he saw.

It was during this period known as "Kanevsky" paintings of Ovchinnikov gets its breadth, magnitude, color, and tonality, which subsequently constitute important features of his individual style.

In 1960–1970 the main theme of Ovchinnikov creativity again becomes the Volga river, the village of Pristannoe, as well as ancient Russian cities of Torzhok, Staritsa, Old Ladoga.

The scale of his talent represented at the exhibition of 1988 in halls of the Leningrad Union of Artists, surprised even his friends and colleagues.