B22 Blogstars: Historical Bulgarian of the Week

Historical Bulgarian of the Week - Silvia Dimitrova
Saturday, May 17, 2008

The weeks post will be about another artist. I must say that I am really very impressed with the painters, sculptors and writers that this country has produced. They continue to blow my away. The more I learn about the more surprised I am. Great art comes from this country and it has so for many years. Take for example this weeks Historical Bulgaria:
Silvia Dimitrova, which is "Силвия Димитрова" in Bulgarian (CLICK HERE FOR HER OFFICIAL WEBSITE), was born in 1970 in the town of Pleven, she is a painter of icons, as well as a few other, more contemporary works. Icons are very important here in Bulgaria, which is largely Bulgarian Orthodox in religion and she is recognized as one of the best.

According to her web-site, where most of this information came from, "She works in the traditional technique of icon painting - egg tempera on wood, and her work covers the whole spectrum of traditional Bulgarian icons and original works". Below I have included some samples of her Icons:

She has held a solo exhibition in Rueil-Malmaison, a suburb of Paris in 1997. In 1999 she was commissioned by a monastery in Wells called "Downside Abbey", which was completed shortly before the outbreak of WWI, to pain the Icon of St. Benenict (Pictured below).She then began working, in 2000, at the Wells Cathedral as an artist-in-residence where she painted the 14 Stations of the Cross. In the same year she was nominated for a "European Women of Achievement" Award in the field of Arts. In that same year she had work displayed at St. Paul's Cathedral in London and Hertford College in Oxford.

For a long and detailed list of her more notable exhibitions and commissions feel free to go to her web-site.

Her is a brief sample of some of her secular work:

A quote on her work: "Silvia Dimitrova's art is a vibrant gift from God to people of various Christian traditions and also to those who do not yet believe. Her two styles of traditional Bulgarian icons and modern love paintings, the sacred and the secular, enrich and influence each other. They are inspiring in their profundity and fecundity."