Sarasota artist travels the globe painting outdoors

Vadislav Yeliseyev wrote the book on en plein air painting. Literally. In February, the Sarasota artist published his book, “Light and Color in the Watercolor Landscape: Essential Principles and Techniques.”

The art world has taken notice. Last month, one of Yeliseyev’s paintings was featured on the cover of Fine Art and Connisseur magazine. Other magazine articles and art show honors have followed this year.

Born in the Soviet Union, Yeliseyev studied art at night school while he was still in high school. When it came time for university, he earned a bachelor’s degree in Classical Art from the Moscow School of Art and a master’s in Architecture from the Moscow Institute of Architecture. Yeliseyev moved to New York City in 1989, around the time the Berlin Wall was coming down, but two years before the Soviet Union collapsed.

In New York, Yeliseyev found work at an architecture firm doing drawings. It wasn’t until he and his wife, Marina, moved to Sarasota in 2010 that he became a full-time artist, specializing in en plein air (“in the open air”) watercolor painting.

Although he wasn’t the classic starving artist, when Yeliseyev first arrived in New York City, he was broke. “I was living in the Hotel St. George in Brooklyn Heights. When I went to apply for food stamps, the lady asked me how much money I had in the bank and it was something like $15 or $20,” he recalls.

In its heyday in the 1930s and 1940s, the St. George had more than 2,500 rooms and several ballrooms. It later fell into disrepair and was used by the city of New York to house homeless people and AIDs patients. But Yeliseyev wasn’t fazed by his neighbors.

That’s because he was no stranger to adversity and deprivation growing up in the Soviet Union. Although his father fought the Nazis during World War II, he was later sent to the gulag (prison) for nearly a decade under Stalin’s regime. He later emigrated to Israel and wrote a book, Yeliseyev says.

But perhaps his greatest achievement was inspiring his son to never give up. “My father wasn’t a criminal; he was a victim who was eventually rehabiliated. He didn’t say, ‘do this and don’t do that.’ He lived by example. He was a true gentleman with respect for human life,” Yeliseyev says.

Courtesy image

One of the other lessons Yeliseyev says he learned from his father was “quid pro quo. If you help other people, they will help you. That’s why I love the United States so much. People help you here,” he says.

Yeliseyev will allow that he benefitted from free, rigorous education in the Soviet Union but explains that it was “very competitive. There were 10 or 15 applicants for every position in a school. It’s next to impossible to get in.”

After establishing himself in New York’s architectural scene, Yeliseyev married his wife in 1999 and the two moved to Stamford, Connecticut, where he established his own architectural drawing firm.

He and Marina first met in Moscow at a New Year’s Eve party and discovered they lived quite close to each other. But their romance was put on hold for 10 years until Marina made her way to the United States, after spending time in Cyprus.

A gracious hostess, her organizational and marketing skills have helped raise Yeliseyev’s profile as an artist. She’s also been an active coordinator for her husband’s “paint outs” around the world and other events to help promote his art.

In addition to teaching students, these events have allowed Yeliseyev to capture beautiful scenes in notable locations such as Venice and Assisi, Italy, besides painting Sarasota scenes. He is a member of the National Watercolor Society, the American Impressionist Society and the Florida Watercolor Society.

Yeliseyev sells his work on his website and at art shows. Occasionally, he opens his home and studio in The Landings to the public. One of those open houses is coming up on May 16. But because The Landings is a gated community, the Yeliseyevs require visitors to the open house to register in advance on the artist’s website, YeliseyevFineArt.com.

A lot of Yeliseyev’s new 160-page book published by Rockport Publishers is dedicated to techniques of establishing structure in a painting, as befits someone with an architectural background. But most impressive is the section that explains his philosophy to mixing color and how he creates his palette, which is muted, as well as the influence of light in his paintings.

He is fervent in his belief that anyone can learn to paint. But it should be noted that this confidence comes from someone endowed with an abundance of talent as well as the discipline and passion required to create beautiful art.

Yeliseyev says it took him three years to publish his new book, which is available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. “I worked on it every minute that I could, even when I was sitting in airports waiting for a flight,” he says. “I dedicated it to my father because he made me who I am.”