Once, my family seized on the rare opportunity of having our daughter home from college to take a short cruise,” says Florida artist Vladislav Yeliseyev. “Afraid that I’d be overwhelmed by the guilt of letting days go without picking up a brush, I packed my plein air easel and a few supplies. I don’t swim with dolphins, ride on toy submarines, or shop till I drop at local souvenir shops, so when the 15-story cruise ship docked at Mexico’s Cozumel a day later, I realized there was nothing for me to do but paint. So what does Cozumel have to offer the painter? Not much. But I decided to go with the flow and paint the ‘restaurants aplenty’ scenery at the port, with just enough water in the view to give it an authentic island look.
“You might notice that the building in the foreground doesn’t match the photo. On site, a better-looking restaurant shack sat outside the frame of my subject, and I simply used it to replace the one that was there with a few strokes of my brush. Sometimes I go a long way for the benefit of composition — and we know that composition rules.”
Connect with the artist at yeliseyevfineart.com.
