Beginning his foray into painting at a very young age, artist Nikolo Balkanski eventually graduated from the Medium Special Arts School in Sofia, Bulgaria, when he was 18. At 21, he held his first solo exhibition in Bulgaria, featuring portraits of some of the country’s leading actors, poets and politicians. After moving to multiple locales, Balkanski ended up in Evergreen, Colorado, in 1986, and began devoting more time to painting the Western United States landscape—though he also paints portraits, still lifes and figurative works.
Sozopol Fishing Boats, oil on linen, 20 x 30"
Lair o’the Bear Park, oil on canvas, 24 x 36"
His recent oil Sozopol Fishing Boats captures the ancient seaside town of Sozopol on the southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. “The sea is the same, but the fishing boats and pier in the harbor [have] aged and become very old and now abandoned,” Balkanski says of the piece. “With time moving forward they will disappear and take with them the memories of the past.”
The textured, painterly oil on canvas, Lair o’the Bear Park, depicts a warm fall scene. The artist says, “Autumn leaves shower like gold, like rainbows, as the winds of change begin to blow. The breath of autumn was in the air…[This painting] is all about color with simple composition.” In another piece called Garden Shadows are Balkanski’s two dogs, Rufy and Charlie, relaxing and patiently waiting while the artist works on a plein air study of a view from Hudson Gardens in Denver. 
Blue Skys of Taormina, oil on linen, 16 x 20"
Garden Shadows, oil on canvas, 18 x 24"
He describes another painting, Blue Skys of Taormina: “For my paintings I really like to select a variety of different subjects, and in this one the idea was to bring the warm and rustic colors and texture reflecting the ruins/remains of an ancient Greek theater on the coast of Southern Italy with the deep blue sky and sea in distance.”
Over the years, Balkanski has been involved in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including Oil Painters of America, Stampede Western Invitational Art Exhibition & Sale, Buffalo Bill Art Show & Sale, the C.M. Russell Museum auction and many others. He has won many awards and his works are represented in private, corporate and museum collections. Balkanski is also a Master Signature Member of Oil Painters of America. —
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