Two artists are presenting Bulgaria at the Watercolor Masters Exhibition, hosted by Saint Petersburg, Russia in the period February 1^st – 25^th. The works of the Bulgarian participants cover the whole range of watercolor art to some extent, one of the participants, Alexander Telalim says. He adds that his own works are really poetic, diffuse and demonstrating that watercolor magic which always brings in an unexpected and unique result. On the other hand the work of Kiril Bozhkov is very detailed and the light spreads all over it. Kiril Bozhkov presents at the exhibition a portrait of now late Elder Dobri, aka The Saint of Bailovo, a pious man who lived humbly and donated all his money to the church for charity purposes. A few days ago the old man passed away at the age of 103.

The second edition of the Watercolor Masters Exhibition once again gathers in Saint Petersburg top artists from all over the world – nearly 100 participants from 23 countries. More than 400 works present classical and modern art trends via different styles and subjects – portraits, landscapes, still life, abstraction… The organizers look for a high level of professionalism at the selection of the participants and also a recognizable style of each author.

Ukraine-born Bessarabian Bulgarian Alexander Telalim has been living in Bulgaria for over 20 years now, saying it is his home. He has more than 60 exhibitions in this country and abroad on his record. He is interested in various subjects, expressing those via different artistic methods. His works are intuitive and spontaneous:

“I pick up things from the cultures of Russia, Ukraine, China and Japan. I try to combine all of these in my works. The typical for the Bulgarians vitality, their boisterousness and energy can also be felt in my works.”

Alexander says that his favorite technique – the watercolor is a huge challenge. It is a live technique – water finishes what the artist has started and the result synthesizes the desires and mastership of the artist with what’s been provided by God in terms of luck. Watercolor attracts great interest globally nowadays and also in Bulgaria. What is the reason?

“Things have really changed for the past 50 years with better and modern materials that provide quality, endurance and vision,” the artist explains. “Furthermore, as watercolor artists have always remained aside from official orders, their view to life has kept its freshness and diversity. Being a bridge between graphics and painting, it allows the expression of that internal artistic freedom, resulting in a very intimate dialogue with the art viewer.”

There are not very many watercolor painters in Bulgaria, but they have their unique style and interesting ideas, Alexander says. He draws a parallel with the features of the Bulgarian icon painting school, compared to the Russian or Catholic painting styles:

“On one hand we have our warm souls of Slavs and we pay greater attention to human feelings. Our icon might not be that sophisticated as the Russian one, but it is highly expressive and conveys that deep vitality, even the magic of some ancient, pre-Christian roots. All that can be felt in Bulgarian painting in general, in all aspects of our culture.”

Calligraphy is the other passion of Alexander Telalim and he has opted for a very tough challenge here: Cyrillic calligraphy in Eastern style.

“I do hope in the future to reach even better synthesis between painting and calligraphy. This thing that I have taken up is very specific – calligraphy in Bulgarian or Russian languages. I have always been interested in the way the Chinese and Japanese people combine graphic images with text.”

Alexander finds it really important to be truly touched by the text he turns into calligraphy. This could be the classical art of haiku poetry – the shortest form of poetic expression, short verses or even some Zen expressions. He often works with Bulgarian haiku poets. He is currently working calligraphies for a haiku collection of verse by poets from Bulgaria and other countries. An example is his rendition of this haiku work of Violeta Penushlieva, which the painter presented to the BNR at the end of the interview.

“A magical night. The moon

bathes in the lake.

Nude.”

Pictures: courtesy of Alexander Telalim

English version: Zhivko Stanchev