Just like everything important, this too happened by chance. When I was a little child my father used to lock me at home. There were no computers and TV back then so what could I do? I was drawing. That is how artist Peter Mitchev started his path. The works of the self-made artist are like love from the first sight. What is Peter Mitchev’s style?

“I cannot define it. My father used to say: ‘You can draw this year but next one you should start doing something serious.’ My life passed in promises that I would start doing something serious next year. I haven’t thought about creating a specific style. Others say I have one but art experts should define it.”

One thing is for sure. The works of Peter Mitchev are easily distinguishable. Harmony, satisfaction, calmness are feelings one experiences when watching the paintings. A feeling each one of use craves for, but often misses in life. Does harmony seen in the works of Peter Mitchev have a place in his real life?

“Of course it has. Harmony is the result of the mistakes of my life. One learns from mistakes rather than from examples. I am a lifelong sinner and I have been striving to become a better person. But this cannot happen just through desire. One needs deeds i.e. creating paintings, positive emotions that you give people. A friend of mine, a French theater director once said: ‘You're no artist. You're a healer of wounded human souls." 
 
But where does this ability come from? 
"I do not know how I do it. My life is like yours. The daily lives of all people are the same. In the morning I go the studio and start working and there the magic happens. But I need to see what I am going to paint. Otherwise, I do not even start working."

A major theme in his work is the woman placed on a pedestal - the tempting woman, the mother, the beloved wife. Peter says everything in life is held together by love.

"You know what wise men say? They say that nobody has taught anyone love or art. These are given to you but if you don’t give you also don’t receive. Love must be mutual. Great Bulgarian singer Lili Ivanova once said that life ceased if she stopped loving. This is also valid for me as an artist just like it is valid for poets. Can you imagine a poet who does not fall in love? Poets write because they fall in love.”

But the act of creativity is not just love, it is freedom. We asked the artist whether we are free today after a long and difficult transition to democracy.

"No. The state used to stimulate creative activities - theater, music, art. Artists used to have regional and national exhibitions once a year. This is not nostalgia. One worked for a whole year for the exhibition and then the state bought one of your paintings. Naturally, this was not enough but it gave you stimuli to create and to be the best, competing against colleagues so you know who the best one is... Now the opposite is happening. In Sofia there are 20-30 artists who think they are above everyone else but no one has heard of them and they don’t take part in exhibitions.”

 Are Bulgarians able to identify and respect talents?

"This question is very special,” Peter Mitchev says. “Those who can identify art usually cannot afford to buy paintings in order to be in constant dialogue with works of art. And those who have the money do not appreciate art. The rich do not read books. When you do not read, you wonder what art is.”

 
At the end of our meeting with Peter Mitchev he told us about his current work:

"I have been working for years on the topic of Easter eggs that did not exist in Bulgarian art 25 years ago. I was then creating some complex compositions depicting Easter eggs. People were interested in them. Once, people even asked my mother if I had died because they saw postcards with my works on them in the bookstore. At that time they mostly printed postcards using paintings by deceased artists. It was a funny stiry. I keep working on the topics of Easter, of love and dreams. Without dreams there is no future.”

English: Alexander Markov