The majestic sea – stormy or calm and peaceful, in all possible colours, shades and states – is the love of Rosen Poptomov’s life, one of the most prominent marine painters of our time.

“Every single detail is an inspiration to me, from the finest spray to the crash of the waves as they break in the rocks, the light. Everything inspires me. The sea changes every second. One life would not be enough to paint it, nor would several,” says the artist.

He started drawing as a child – when he was only 4. During the first years he studied sculpture with prominent Bulgarian sculptor Nencho Rusev turning to painting as a teenager.

“I turned to painting the sea late in the day, when I had already dabbled in all styles of art and was still searching for who I am. I was commissioned to make copies of Aivazovsky, and the power of the sea struck me, I fell in love with it, with the movement of the water,” Rosen Poptomov remembers.

In his work he uses an unorthodox and difficult technique – oil paint, spatulas and brushes - because he loves to challenge himself, to experiment, to better himself and to demonstrate his very best.

“The sea is an artist’s torment,” Rosen Poptomov admits in one of the few interviews he has given. How does he subdue it?

“The sea really is a very complex thing,” the artist from Bourgas says. “To be able to subdue it one really needs to know it very well, to see the things going on below the surface, to be able to feel the processes taking place there. And to study them, observe them in such a way as to be ready to paint them. Only by knowing the sea can you paint it.”

Rosen Poptodorov says that he now rarely paints from life. He works with photographs he takes himself, waiting for the precise moment from early morning till late at night to catch the sea at its most beautiful.

What does it feel like to give up your paintings?

“In the first years, as any young artist, I was fond of my works, but then I started to realize that what matters is for other people to like them. It is important to me to know that they pass into the hands of people who appreciate them. My own pleasure lies in the process of creation. The moment I take a picture down from the easel is the moment I forget about it and start thinking of the next one. So, I would say that at this time it is easy for me to part with my paintings,” Rosen Poptomov says.

An exhibition of 30 works by the painter opens in Bourgas on 23 November. 

“At this exhibition I shall be showing my latest paintings so that people can see what progress I have made because artists must evolve their entire lives. I am staking on things more dramatic, on stormier seascapes. I do hope the public will enjoy them.”

Photos: courtesy of Rosen Poptomov