Kolyada was born in Moscow in 1907. At the age of 18, he was admitted as an apprentice to the studio of famous artist
Nikolay Krymov. Krymov's mastery of impression and light is considered to have had an important influence on Kolyada's future artistic career. Kolyada's apprenticeship was followed by four years of study at the prestigious Superior Institute of Arts and Techniques
Vkhutemas-Vhutein under
David Shterenberg and
Sergey Vasilyevich Gerasimov after which he joined the
OST (Society of Easel Painters) for two years prior to its disbandment by the authorities. The beginning of Kolyada's career coincided with the establishment of Soviet
Socialist realism as the only authorized style of art. As with numerous artists of that time, Kolyada worked not only for the state in an official capacity; but also created a large body of impressive private works, including portraits, still lives and landscapes. Although he was admitted into the Union of Artists of the USSR in 1972 and participated in many group exhibitions, during his lifetime he did not gain the prestige of colleagues who fulfilled the Party's plans for Art depicting “Revolutionary Russia.” He kept his personal and artistic integrity, perhaps at the expense of lost opportunities for advancement. In 1945, a great number of his early paintings (including a number of avant-garde works created during his years of studies at the Vhutemas-Vhutein and in the following years) were destroyed in a suspicious fire at his parents home near the town of Tartsev, Smolensk area, where Sergei used to spend his holidays every year. Kolyada was a co-founder of the Society of Painters of the Moscow region. After the
Second World War, he participated in a few artistic missions in the “Pouchinsky-Gory” region (which inspired Pouchkine) and in the kolkhozes of the Moscow region during the 1950s. In the 1960s, he started painting the landscapes of “his” old Moscow; a one of his works that he continued for over 30 years. In his last years, Kolyada travelled, painted and exhibited outside the USSR in Australia and France. He died in his beloved home town of Moscow in 1996 at the age of 89. ==Career==