The Artist Who Likes To Paint In Cold Water

His pictures may or may not be your cup of tea, but with his unusual method of painting them, Russian diver Yuri Alekseev certainly isn’t looking for an easy ride. ANDREY NEKRASOV tags along to watch him at work

- Andrey Nekrasov

THE FIRST TIME

I heard about Yuriy Alekseev, a 52-year-old artist,was on a dive-trip to Baikal, the world’s biggest lake by volume. He was a bit of a local celebrity, I was told.

I didn’t have time to meet him on that occasion, but on my next trip I arrange to go to the small town of Baikalsk where he lives. We meet at his studio and get on well, as he tells me about the art of painting under water in Siberia.

“While diving I was impressed by one site in the Olkhon island region, where you can see the rock going down vertically for almost 800m,” he says. “It’s a real abyss and it took my breath away! It was natural for me to want to draw the views I saw under the water.”

But why not enjoy the view, take photos if necessary and then paint in your comfortable studio? Because, says Alekseev, your perception of the world is quite different when you’re under water, with no sound but that of your rising air bubbles. The inspiration and energy he finds under water is, he insists, inimitable.

He uses ordinary oil paints. Oils can’t be dissolved in water so they cover the canvas smoothly. Brushes, however, have to be replaced by palette knives.

“The biggest problem is the temperature,” Alekseev tells me. “You have to work wearing thick gloves, which makes it difficult even to squeeze paint from the tube. The paint becomes stiffer when the temperature is down to 1°C.