DESERT: AZIMA MELITA KOLIN

The 'Desert Collection’ is drawn from the Artist's travels in the deserts of Sinai and the Sahara and inspired by the deep silence and the eternal space of the desert.

Azima Melita Kolin is an artist, concert pianist and a writer. Born in Sofia she first trained as a pianist and graduated from the Music Academies of Sofia, Rome and Geneva. She loved painting from an early age and studied with Mr. Simeonof and later with Keller in London. She also attended classes in Heatherly School of Fine Art.

She moved in London in 1971, married, had two children and in 1980 she started a Chamber Music Festival in her husbands family home - Dunvegan Castle in Isle of Skye, bringing together musicians from all over the world. Inspired by the beauty of the island she also had annual exhibitions in Dunvegan Caste in aid of the Festival.

In 1994 she spent a month at the Attakalari School of Art in Kerala, where the experience of India had a profound effect on her work, deepening her connection with the sacred and spiritual in art. She exhibited her Indian inspired paintings both in London and Belgrade.

In 2001, her paintings inspired by the poems of the 13th century Persian poet Rumi were published by Thorsons/HarperCollins in a book of Rumi's poetry "Hidden Music". Her inspiration comes from music and poetry and her interest is to explore the connection between the different art forms. It is a process of distillation of the experience of words, music and nature, constantly changing in style and medium.

For more than twenty years, Azima Melita has presented numerous exhibitions in London, Scotland, and Germany. Her paintings are in private collections all over the world including Germany, the Gulf States, Spain, Switzerland, and the USA.

Main picture: 'Silence'. Signed, mixed media, 35" x 19" 89.5cm x 48cm