Exhibits

Don Sahli

June 4-27, 2021

Don’s journey to becoming a professional artist was prodigious. 

Doing professional quality work at 10 and began to sell to friends and family. 

By 15 was represented in galleries in Taos, New Mexico and in Texas.

During high school, he was honored as a gold key finalist at the National Scholastic Art Competition for an unprecedented four consecutive years.

In 1982 Don met Sergei Bongart, the famous Russian colorist. "I attended a painting demonstration by Sergei Bongart at his summer workshop in Rexburg, Idaho. There I saw Bongart use color, paint and confident brush strokes as I had never seen before. At that moment I knew I wanted to be a painter. "My life was changed forever in an instant."

At Bogart's invitation, Don moved to Los Angeles, CA and became Bongart’s last scholarship student and apprentice. Sahli was also a pupil of Sunny Apinchapong Yang, Bongart’s teaching assistant. Don studied with Bongart for three years, until his passing in 1985.

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In 1995 Don Sahli opened the Sahli School of Art in Evergreen, Colorado where he continues the tradition of color and temperature in the lineage of the Russian masters. “My teacher Sergei Bongart taught, his teacher Peter Kotov was taught by Nicolai Fechin and Fechin was a pupil of the fountainhead of all modern Russian painting Ilya Repin." Sahli keeps this tradition alive in giving back to the student as this is a critical aspect of the artistic learning processes.“I am a better painter because I teach and I learn from my students. The Russian tradition of painting continues. Bongart's heavy steps are still heard in my classes and studios”.

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Presently, Don’s work is represented by galleries across the country and in private collections nationally and internationally. Don has been a professional painter earning a living as an artist for over 35 years, he has a firm pedigree and is prolific, producing large studio pieces, numerous plein air works — including public and corporate commissions. Known for his use of paint; his brushstroke is exciting and carries a positive emotion to the viewer. His work is diverse carrying many labels, plein air, prolific, impressionist, colorist, realist, luminous, modern, alive with the spontaneity of stroke and contemporary.

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