Vyacheslav Nikolaevich Zabelin (1935–2001) studied at the Surikov Moscow Art Institute. Later he became a teacher there and ran a workshop. He was a professor of painting; the so-called Zabelin School was quite popular among students.

Zabelin was an Honored Painter of the RSFSR, Honored Artist of the RSFSR, and honorary citizen of Rostov Veliky. The artist was a member of the creative association “Romantics of Realism”, where he was characterized as an exquisitely sophisticated colorist.

Vyacheslav Zabelin belonged to the circle of artists whose works and creativity continued the direct line of the Russian painting tradition. In fact, he was the direct heir of the leading masters of the “Moscow school of painting” of the early 20th century.

The painter Sergey Alexandrovich Gavrilyachenko wrote,

The artist depicted a summer garden: everything is flooded with sunlight that breaks through the lush foliage. The canvas conveys a feeling of freshness; one could almost smell a wave of fragrance coming from the greenery. The artist’s colors are bright and vibrant. By combining opposites — cold and warm colors, transparent and pastel tones — the artist helps the viewer feel the space of the country veranda, which is filled with light and air. Vyacheslav Nikolaevich Zabelin repeatedly painted this veranda at different times of the year. For instance, the 1979 painting “Veranda Illuminated by the Sun” shows this nook in the autumn.

A personal exhibition of the artist “Revelation in Colors” took place in 2010. 50 works were displayed in the exhibition hall of the Artists’ Union of Russia. The press release for the exhibition noted,