Biography

Stella Canfield was born in Varna, Bulgaria and graduated from the Academy of Sports in Sofia. Stella lived for five years in Germany and moved to the USA in 1985. She and her husband now divide their time between Bulgaria and the Washington State, USA.

Stella dedicated the first 30 thirty years of her life to the sports world and was well respected as a national rower. In Germany she worked in ceramics which laid the foundation of her artistic career. Having loved watercolors since her childhood, she became an avid student of the medium. Supported tirelessly by her best friend and husband Michael, she traveled endlessly to take watercolor classes, seminars and conferences. Stella is a student of many of the best watercolor artists in the USA such as Milford Zornes http ://en .wikipedia .org /wiki /Milford _Zornes, Serge Hollerbach www .harborsquaregallery .com /artists /s _hollerbach .htm, Carla O’Connor www.carlaoconnor.com, Frank Webb www .watercolorpainting .com /famousartist /Webb .htm , and many others. She participated in and juried exhibits, organized by the arts organizations in the states of Washington and Oregon where she received prestigious awards. Stella teaches watercolor classes in the arts centers of Coupeville (Washington), Bend ( Oregon), Rockport ( Texas) and others.

In 1998 Stella opened her own gallery in the town she lived Coupeville, Washington (noted in the publications of “The 100 Best Small Towns in the USA”). In 2000 Stella founded “Stellar Arts Foundation” www.stellarart.org, an educational and charitable non-profit organization dedicated to help orphaned and abandoned children in Bulgaria. The foundation conducts painting tours for American artists who visit and recreate in their art the beauty of Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Republic of Georgia and Switzerland. Stella also found the "Bulgaria Art Workshops" www.bulgariartworkshops.com, an art school in the heart of the Balkan Mountains, on the grounds of a uniquely spiritual enclave in the village of Dulbok Doll which opens its doors for the first workshop in June 2010.

Since 2002 Stella has been invited to teach at “Daniel Smith” www.danielsmith.com, one of the two most prestigious companies in the USA for producing and selling the finest visual arts materials. The company purchased one of her paintings for its permanent collection and in November this year they included her DVD “Debunking the Myth of Talent” (a two hour film of Stella painting a Prague street scene) in their stores for sale.

Stella Canfield ’s paintings can be found in several corporate, private and museum collections in America, Europe and Asia. Characteristic of Stella’s work and her place in the American Art is included in “Watercolor - The Spirit of Spontaneity” a book by Karlyn Holman www.karlynholman.com. Her biography is included in “Who is Who in America” and “Who is Who in American Women”.

Stella Canfield’s art is known for its deep emotional content, the dynamic of the brush stroke and vivacious colors. She creates intuitively and spontaneously in a relaxed, natural way of expressing her individual emotional response to the subject or scene she paints. Her work is charged with the energy of her own life, her passion for people and nature. The inspiration for Stella’s art comes from her appreciation of beauty and her positive view of the world, possessiveness inspired by her father’s education.

Stella prefers to introduce symbols, giving the viewers the opportunity to visualize the details. This way she strives to emotionally involve them as partners, to give them a feeling of the ownership of the painting. She truly believes that art is a way of spiritual communication.

Others about Stella:

“Stella Canfield is a passionate and uniquely creative artist. Her paintings are fresh and spontaneous because they are painted in a fast and loose, very intuitively, “ala prima” style.

…Her approach is expressive, bold and very direct whether she is creating “ en plain air” or in her studio. Stella paints “the spirit of the place” she is visiting. Instead of intellectualizing over every detail; she simply let’s her intuition and spontaneity have their way.

…When Stella applies the paint on paper, every stroke counts. All the emotions she feels are translated from within her and communicated in her painting trough line and color.”

Karlyn Holman

"Watercolor – “The Spirit of Spontaneity”

www.karlynholman.com

“Exceptional dynamic and fine soul which translates into fabulous watercolors – this is simply Stella! I do not know many artists who can paint true watercolors.”

Vesko Velev

www.veskovelev.com

Pupil of Prof. Ivan Kirkov, Academy of Art, Sofia, Bulgaria

http://www.sbhart.com/events06/IvanKierkovIUch.html

Home ] [ Biography ] [ Original Paintings ] [ Fine Art Reproductions ]

[ Watercolor Workshops ][ Contacts ]