Vasily Andreevich Yelesin is a painter, and a supporter of the arts. He was born in 1949, in the village of Verkhnyaya Fyodorovka, in Krasnoyarsk Krai. The future artist spent his childhood close to the forest, in various places on the banks of the rivers Izras, Bel-su, Orton and Mras-su. His drawing teacher realized that this unassuming lad had a great deal of artistic talent, and introduced him to the world of drawing and painting, and spent two years instructing him and preparing him to enter the P.P. Benkov School of Art, in Tashkent. Vasily Yelesin spent thirty years living in Uzbekistan, where he worked as a graphic designer. In 1994 he came to Mountain Shoria.
Since 1996 he has regularly taken part in painting competitions and exhibitions. He has organized personal exhibitions in Bryansk, Dudinka and Saint-Petersburg, and in Irkutsk region. In 1997 Vasily Yelesin organized the construction and opening of a People’s Picture Gallery, dedicated to “the whole world”, in the town of Myski. It is affectionately known as Yelesinka.
Today it serves as a meeting place for painters, musicians and poets from Myski and the nearby towns. It has hosted exhibitions of works by artists from the Kuzbass and Altai regions, Saint-Petersburg, Tallinn, Novosibirsk and many other places in Russia and abroad. In 2003 the town’s department of culture appointed him the head of its art gallery.
In the 2000s he taught in an arts studio and travelled widely. In search of new subjects for his art he travelled to various parts of Siberia, and in June he went on expeditions to paint in the forest and mountains of Shoria. He painted the rivers Mrassa, Tom and Shergesh, and the Kazyr rapids. Talking about his work, the painter says: ‘I work only from nature - I never invent anything.’
One important theme in Vasily Yelesin’s art is the development of the coal industry in his region. In his painting The Raspadskaya Mine we see Russia’s largest mine for extracting ‘black gold’, located eleven kilometers from the city of Mezhdurechensk, in Kemerovo region.
In the foreground of the painting we see a group of technical industrial structures, including the buildings housing the lift mechanism, ventilator, refinery complex, compression equipment, as well as the elevated walkway and conveyer gallery. In the background rises a forested hillside.
The industrial landscape depicted in Vasily Yelesin’s painting allows viewers to imagine the conditions in which miners work.
Since 1996 he has regularly taken part in painting competitions and exhibitions. He has organized personal exhibitions in Bryansk, Dudinka and Saint-Petersburg, and in Irkutsk region. In 1997 Vasily Yelesin organized the construction and opening of a People’s Picture Gallery, dedicated to “the whole world”, in the town of Myski. It is affectionately known as Yelesinka.
Today it serves as a meeting place for painters, musicians and poets from Myski and the nearby towns. It has hosted exhibitions of works by artists from the Kuzbass and Altai regions, Saint-Petersburg, Tallinn, Novosibirsk and many other places in Russia and abroad. In 2003 the town’s department of culture appointed him the head of its art gallery.
In the 2000s he taught in an arts studio and travelled widely. In search of new subjects for his art he travelled to various parts of Siberia, and in June he went on expeditions to paint in the forest and mountains of Shoria. He painted the rivers Mrassa, Tom and Shergesh, and the Kazyr rapids. Talking about his work, the painter says: ‘I work only from nature - I never invent anything.’
One important theme in Vasily Yelesin’s art is the development of the coal industry in his region. In his painting The Raspadskaya Mine we see Russia’s largest mine for extracting ‘black gold’, located eleven kilometers from the city of Mezhdurechensk, in Kemerovo region.
In the foreground of the painting we see a group of technical industrial structures, including the buildings housing the lift mechanism, ventilator, refinery complex, compression equipment, as well as the elevated walkway and conveyer gallery. In the background rises a forested hillside.
The industrial landscape depicted in Vasily Yelesin’s painting allows viewers to imagine the conditions in which miners work.
