About Me
Biography
Diana Savova, email: diana.savova@hotmail.co.uk
(b. 1978 Chepelare, Bulgaria) lives and works in Edinburgh since 2011. She has been pursuing her professional artistic practice ranging from painting and fine art conservation, art tutoring to large-scale murals and book illustrations for over 20 years now.
In 2022 Diana get involved in Adult Education Program, Edinburgh Council as an art tutor. Exploring watercolor technique, using a lot of life demonstrations and videos are part of her classes. Diana believes that Art is for anyone who has interest. There shouldn’t be any barriers and fears to get involved in painting.
In February 2020, Diana received a Visual Artist and Craft Maker Award through Creative Scotland and the City of Edinburgh Council towards the curatorial mentorship of Iliyana Nedkova as part of Diana’s second major solo exhibition in Scotland at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh. Initially scheduled as part of Edinburgh International Fringe Festival in August 2020, this second solo show was rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown for August 2021. With the provisional title Thistles, Sunflowers and Dreamscapes this new exhibition follows Colours 1-30 July 2016 at North Edinburgh Arts – Diana’s first solo show in Scotland. Painting has been Diana’s passion and her medium of choice ever since 1995 when she has started exhibiting in solo and group exhibitions across Bulgaria and since 2011 across Scotland and Europe with over 30 shows to date. Diana holds a MA Degree in Fine Art Conservation and Restoration awarded by the National Academy of Art and Design, Sofia in 2003.
Her works and commissions are part of private collections across the world. Her public art commissions include murals and frescos in Istanbul and Pamporovo, as well as illustrations of a children’s book commissioned by Zhar Publishing House, Sofia.
Diana was the Senior Conservator at the Regional Museum of History, Smolyan and most recently the Volunteer Conservator at St Cecilia’s Hall Music Museum, Edinburgh while undertaking a Pathway Accreditation at ICON (International Institute of Conservation).
Additionally, she has a wealth of experience as Set Designer and Scenic Painter for international film and TV series productions at Bulgarian National Television and Film Studios including the BBC production Roman Mysteries.
“Light, colour and magic realism is where I often draw inspiration for my current painting and drawing projects employing watercolour, ink, oil and acrylic. I focus on landscapes, cityscapes and dreamscapes as I feel compelled to mix reality and fantasy in compositions which juxtapose uncommon imagery as if in a dream. This new lineage of works with surreal motifs now seem to strongly resonate with the strange surrealism of the novel Coronavirus pandemic.
Recently, I also discovered the rarely practiced acrylic pouring technique and have been exploring it since. Combining accidental pouring with hyper-realistic surreal details in both acrylic and oil paints has come to define my current practice.
Currently, I am working on paintings which revolve around the idea of retelling classic fairy tales through magic realism. I revisit some of the classic fairy tales I grew up with in the South of Europe and try to contrast them with the stories my young child is now growing up in the North of Europe. With the provisional title Contemporary Fairy-Tale Magic, this new body of paintings looks at the impact of fairy tales on our shared European contemporary cultures with special emphasis on how we can re-imagine the global climate, ecological and health emergencies for new audiences.”
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