Vlad Duchev, 2023 Judge and Participating Artist, Baltimore, Maryland

vladduchev.com

Vlad Duchev was born in1965 in a small town in Ukraine. Growing up he was impressed by the art of Russian-Ukrainian impressionist. At the age of 8, he entered the art school in a small town of Bila-Tserkov and started his journey as an artist with the goal to enter the Art Academy of Ukraine. At the age of 14, being under the pressure from his musical family, he decided to take a musical path. He studied at Music College of Zhytomyr, Music Academy of Kharkiv, and National Conservatory of Ukraine in Kyiv with major in classical performance - double bass. But at the same time, he continued studying painting. In1994 due to the unstable situation in Ukraine he decided to move his family to the United States. In 2015 after the sudden death of his beloved brother and after almost 20 years not holding the brushes he decided to return to his passion for painting. He dived-in to the studies and set the rule of painting daily. He studied and continues to study with Matt Smith, Scott Christensen, Anne Blair Brown, Kathryn Stats, and his friend Zufar Bikbov.

Vlad Duchev was the winner of the 2022 Coastal VA Plein Air and donated all of the proceeds from his paintings to support Ukranians after being invaded by Russia.

Vlad is the Judge for the 2023 Coastal VA Plein Air event in Norfolk, Virginia.