By Ted Simpson –
For the third year in a row, Venz Vesselinov will invite local art lovers into his Whitby Avenue studio to share the newest works as part of the West End Studio Tour (WEST).
For the work that will be on display during WEST, Vesselinov has pushed his signature landscapes even more towards the surreal, with the kind of colour and scenery that is unique to the artist’s own mind.
“For these paintings I haven’t used anything from real life, everything is created from my own imagination,” says Vesselinov. And he has quite the imagination to pull from, being a world traveller who has seen every continent and lived on two of them.
Born in Bulgaria, Vesselinov obtained his Master’s degree in Fine Arts and began his career as an illustrator and designer in Europe. In 1994, he came to Canada to expand his opportunities as an artist. He started in Newfoundland where he co-founded a graphics design company and also took up the art of making stained glass windows.
He moved to Montreal where his work with animation began to take off, and then to Ottawa 10 years ago. He continues to work as a designer and an animator, currently working on programming for the Discovery Kids channel.
“I’m not a traditional painter,” Vesselinov admits. With so many years as a designer and illustrator, it is the time spent making stained glass in the Maritimes that influences his paintings the most. “I kept the simplicity of the lines and the very colourful pallet, I was able to create my own kind of style,” he says. “Lately I’m trying to make the colours more mixed, after working with the stained glass I like the brightness, the colours are so loud, so beautiful.”
Anyone who saw his work last fall should definitely make a return trip, as Vesselinov is taking things further into the realm of the unreal this year.
With a couple of years of WEST under his belt, he is excited to see both new and familiar faces again this year.
“The best thing about all this is the feedback,” says Vesselinov. “Usually an artist just stays alone with his work. Suddenly you have all the public coming to your place and everybody has something to say, it’s awesome.”
For more information about Venz Vesselinov, visit venz-art.com or westendstudiotour.ca.
Click here to read profiles of the other artists on the West End Studio Tour.