In his new exhibition artist Atanas Hranov opens the door to his atelier - a most intimate spiritual space, illuminated in the morning by mystical light.

"Breakfast in the Atelier blurs the boundaries between imagination and reality and sometimes leaves a dark trail like a spattered coffee,going out ofthe cup and taking its own way.” It is no coincidence that literary critic Svetlozar Zhelev was the one who opened in Rakursi Gallery the latest exhibition of one of Bulgaria’s brightest contemporary artists. In his paintings, Atanas Hranov not only depicts moments, but tells whole stories.

“The atelier is the spiritual space that every artist carries within himself, not the walls, the ceiling, or the floor in a building,” Atanas Hranov says. "I would even call it a spiritual maze that we build each day with all of our worries, fears, dreams, love, desires. Fears, however, are not the main thing shaping us as people. Naturally, we cannot stay indifferent in the world we live in these days. Worries about whether this world would exist in the future are seen in each of our actions. But we also should not forget the beauty around us. People should look more often to this brighter side in order for our lives to be brighter.”

The artist, born in 1961 in Plovdiv, graduated from the Academy of Art, specializing in wood carving, but as a student he started mixing genres, thus creating his characteristic palette of colors. I started painting on wood-carving and the sculpture gradually gave way to painting until I finally reached the perfect plane of the canvas, he says. The artist has had 40 exhibitions so far and defines his style as magical realism, saying that that when painting he leaves his subconscious part mind do the work. Thus, on the canvas, one sees experiences that often follow their own logic and order, just like in the work entitled "Portrait of a Trip," included in the exhibition.

“One night when sailing in the ocean onboard a yacht, I was on watch alone and I saw something phosphorescent in the water,” the artist recalls. "Suddenly this glowing spot started approaching, and then I experienced what people call an atavistic horror caused by some mysterious threat. In the end, it turned out that these were two whales - they came near the boat to play but before I knew this I was quite scared. Later on, I found this story in one of my paintings and I liked it very much that I had quite literally depicted the event. You will see the face of a frightened child surrounded by strange white creatures in the water, perhaps because I myself felt like a frightened child back then.”

Now that the paintings are already on display, they will stay there until May 4^th.The artist who is keen on sailing has once again focused on favorite elements - wind and water, and continues his wonderful and interesting sail called life.

English: Alexander Markov