About the artist

 
 

 

 

Slawomir chrystow

I was born in Varna, Bulgaria on the Black Sea. From my earliest years, something irresistibly urged me towards drawing and I feel that this force paved the way and created the conditions for me to develop my craft.

I was very fortunate to meet two wonderful teachers who shaped me a great extent and to whom I owe the foundations of my artistic education. Gavrail Vichev and Yavor Tsanev; the former a linocut artist, the latter an outstanding painter and printmaker. It was they who prepared me for my studies, supported me spiritually and cheered on my aspirations.

In the years between 1996-2001, I studied at the Faculty of Graphic Arts of the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, Poland where in my second year I was assigned to the woodcut studio of Professor Zbigniew Lutomski. It was also there that I defended my dissertation. My studies did not end there, in fact, one could say that they merely began and continue to this day.

What some may call studying, to me, I understand as exploring those areas that fascinate, interest and delight me. Some of them are just a supplementary margin of my creative endeavours, such as my flirtation with calligraphy or marbling, while others, such as painting and printmaking, I have devoted myself to a much greater extent and continue to refine and learn from.

While I prefer to let my paintings and work speak for themselves, they are not meant to reflect me as their author but rather act as the example of the possibilities that stem from our common, creative source.