Sabbi Gavrailov is willing to accept commissions
"My passion for art has chased me since my childhood. Years have passed and the desire to create increases by the day. I create my work from my photographs, and sketches which I take and draw during travel, leisure, and day-to-day life. One of my favourite subjects is portraiture and figurative art along with still-life and landscape work.
The expressions of the person painted are what inspired me to create a portrait. I often lose myself in my image library looking for that emotion to strike me. When I receive a commission my first request is to meet the person where possible and take the photographs myself, it just gives me that special touch. The goal for me is to see the initial emotion once the portrait is revealed and the customer falls in love at first sight, the feeling is so unexplainably rewarding, and this is why I do it.
But art for me is not only painting it is also being part of the art community and society where we can share each other's knowledge,
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Sabbi Gavrailov is willing to accept commissions
"My passion for art has chased me since my childhood. Years have passed and the desire to create increases by the day. I create my work from my photographs, and sketches which I take and draw during travel, leisure, and day-to-day life. One of my favourite subjects is portraiture and figurative art along with still-life and landscape work.
The expressions of the person painted are what inspired me to create a portrait. I often lose myself in my image library looking for that emotion to strike me. When I receive a commission my first request is to meet the person where possible and take the photographs myself, it just gives me that special touch. The goal for me is to see the initial emotion once the portrait is revealed and the customer falls in love at first sight, the feeling is so unexplainably rewarding, and this is why I do it.
But art for me is not only painting it is also being part of the art community and society where we can share each other's knowledge, support local initiatives, encourage the art culture and pass it on to the next generation."
Biography
Sabbi Gavrailov is a self-taught artist from Bulgaria who works and creates in Hemel Hempstead, UK. He originates from the town of Brezovo which is also the birthplace of two iconic Bulgarian artists: Zlatyu Boyadzhiev, who died in 1976 and is known for his portraits and landscapes depicting the village life in the region, as well as and Mincho Katsaroff, an artist celebrated in France but virtually unknown in his home country.
Sabbi relates to Zlatyu Boyadzhiev through his great-grandfather, Zlatyu’s close cousin. He strongly believes his talent comes from the roots of the family. There are striking similarities found between the landscape and portrait painting styles of Sabbi Gavrailov and Zlatyu Boyadzhiev. In his early days, Sabbi also took lessons in the atelier of another contemporary artist from the Plovdiv region, Geno Lazarov.
As a young teenager, Sabbi chose Art at school as one of his main subjects and showed great interest in different techniques such as etching, ink printmaking, and academic drawing as well as different mediums. He was recognised as a rising talent by his teachers and was encouraged to take part in numerous art initiatives and national competitions. Sabbi graduated from the Vocational School of Architecture and Geodesy in Plovdiv, Bulgaria in 1996. In 2003 he settled in the UK and two years later acquired a Professional Diploma in Digital Photography in London.
A fascination with digital photography over the past decade has helped to encourage his love of travel photography and his favourite subject Portraiture. Despite always wanting to become an artist one day, the opportunity had never really presented itself until the loss of his father back home in Bulgaria when a creative outpouring of emotion unleashed his talent.
Sabbi uses only his own sketches and photography to create his paintings but also admits that he is inspired and fascinated by great Masters of Art such as Nikolai Blokhin, Rembrandt Van Rijn and Vladimir Dimitrov-The Master, whose art he constantly studies and applies some of their techniques in his own work. He paints in oils as a primary medium, and he is now commissioned for his award-winning portraits, still-life art as well as impressionist landscape work.
"One of my favourite subjects is portraiture. The expressions of the person painted are what inspire me to create portraits. The ultimate goal for me is to see the initial emotion once the portrait is unveiled and the client falls in love with it, the feeling is so rewarding, and this is why I love it."
Sabbi actively participates in the art communities in Hertfordshire, UK exhibits at local events and galleries and takes part in national and international art competitions. Sabbi is an active member of the Harpenden Art Club, and his portraiture won the “Visitors Choice Award for a Painting” at the Harpenden Art Club Annual exhibitions for two consecutive years, 2021/22.
In 2023 Sabbi was recognised with two Talent Prizes, for Portrait and Figurative Painting by Teravarna Art Gallery Internationally Juried Competition.
Although he works and exhibits in the UK, in 2023 Sabbi received an invitation from the prestigious Gallery and Art Museum Dimitar Georgiev in Plovdiv, Bulgaria to present a solo exhibition. Sabbi makes his debut in the Bulgarian art scene with a themed solo exhibition called "Roots" which he created to commemorate the 120 Anniversary of the Great Bulgarian Painter and his distant relative Zlatyu Boyadzhiev. Sabbi presents a strong selection of Oil Portraits, Still-Life, and Landscape art which had a great success. Later in the same year, he was invited to present the exhibition “Roots” again in the birth town of Zlaty Boyadjiev, Brezovo.
His paintings are in private collections around the world including, Europe, the Middle East, and South America.
2023 - 2023 Harpenden Art Club Annual Exhibition 2023
Harpenden Trust Centre, Harpenden
2023 - 2023 Aldenham Art Festival 2023
St John the Baptist Church, Aldenham
2023 - 2023 Art In The Nave
St Mary's Church, HEMEL HEMPSTEAD
2022 - 2022 Harpenden Art Club Annual Exhibition 2022
Harpenden Trust Centre, Harpenden
2022 - 2022 Aldenham Art Festival 2022,
St John the Baptist Church, Aldenham
2022 - 2022 HVAF Big Art Fair 2022
Town Hall Gallery, Hitchin
2022 - 2022 Anatomy of a Portrait - Queen Elizabeth II, Themed Exhibition
by Sabbi Gavrailov, Dacorum Creatives Art Hub, Marlowes
Gallery, HEMEL HEMPSTEAD
2021 - 2021 Harpenden Art Club Annual Exhibition
Harpenden Trust Centre, Harpenden
2021 - 2021 HVAF Big Art Fair 2021
Town Hall Gallery, Hitchin
