Diana Foteva has been decorating houses and palaces in the United Arab Emirates, turning them into unusual and beautiful places. She is popular because of her unique and exclusive style. For 16 years now, Diana Foteva has been creating masterpieces, easily blurring the line between fine and decorative arts.

She studied mural painting and monumental techniques at the National Academy of Arts in Sofia, and continued painting at one of the largest universities of art and design in Germany - Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle, before a film changed her life.

"One rainy day I was watching a film about Dubai, which impressed me and I decided that this was the place for my professional realization,” Diana Foteva recalls. “The opportunity was not late. I came here and worked for 6 months for a famous Italian interior designer. A year later, after finishing my studies in Germany, I returned to Dubai and founded my own company.”

Decorative ceilings, frescoes, murals and ornamental compositions - this is just part of the rich palette of services offered by Diana's company. Is it difficult to find a market place in a country like the United Arab Emirates?

"I would like to give a lot of credit to my solid professional training, which distinguishes me," Diana Foteva says. “Another important prerequisite for success is the ability to assess the situation and constantly adapt and adjust to it. Dubai is a place that is developing at a dizzying pace and we were lucky to settle at a time when things were still in their infancy. Today, I feel proud to be part of this society and grateful for the opportunity to accompany this extraordinary progress.”

The first orders Diana received were for single walls and gilded ceilings. She soon started working on artistic interiors and complete concepts - such as a painted antique world map on the ceiling of a child's room, before large and complex projects followed:

"Our latest sites were mostly luxury hotels. This year we participated in a project by world-famous architect Zaha Hadid. Now we are finishing a top-luxury hotel in the business heart of Dubai,” the Bulgarian says. “But perhaps one of the most iconic projects I have carried out was in the private farm of late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founder of the United Arab Emirates. The farm in the desert of Abu Dhabi was inherited by his son Sheikh Tahnun. Local citizens are well educated in terms of design, given their solvency and their ability to travel around the world."

Diana does not miss Bulgaria because she has never severed ties with her homeland. But is there some Bulgarian influence in her work?

"Definitely," art director Diana Foteva says. “As a graduate of the Bulgarian art school, its influence is projected in my work on murals, in ornamental paintings, floral motifs have a serious presence too, but I could not say that I limit myself to them. I have always had an affinity for Western European art. That is why my work is a rich synthesis of European styles, seasoned with refined Arabic taste...”

English: Alexander Markov