Bulgarian artist Petya Konstantinova brings "The Flying Prague" to Sofia

“The cities we inhabit actually inhabit us - they slip into our hearts and minds, quietly take over our speech, tame us and make us like the locals” - this is the message that emerges from the exhibition of young Bulgarian artist Petya Konstantinova. Her paintings, featuring naive-style images of cats, dogs, birds, and silhouettes of houses from “Flying Prague,” are displayed in the large foyer of the Czech Cultural Center inSofia. The opening of the exhibition attracted dozens of fans of colorful art, as the artist even held an open drawing lesson for her most devoted admirers.

For the past 10 years, Petya Konstantinova has been living in the Czech capital, Prague, and now draws inspiration from it. As a result, her brush produces people wearing large hats carrying mugs of beer on their heads, as well as depictions dominated by the silhouettes of Charles Bridge, Prague Castle and cathedrals, and that soft light of street lamps playing with reflections and shadows on the river’s waters.

This May, Petya also spent a full week in Sofia, and her works are included in the opening of the “Art Naïf” salon ат 6 Shipka Street 6 in Sofia. This is a new format of the Union of Bulgarian Artists, which brings together naïve artists from around the world in Bulgaria.

Who is Petya Konstantinova? Born in Stara Zagora, she completed her education in Plovdiv and Sofia, and her professional path passed through a publishing house for technical periodicals. An unexpected health problem confronted her with a dilemma: whether to continue professionally in a high-pressure environment or slow down for a short break and rethink everything she had experienced so far.

And so Petya found herself in the world of painting and art – something she had kept deeply hidden within herself. From then on, everything changed, and she began to fulfill her dreams. Although she has no formal art education, for the past 13 years Petya has been mainly engaged in painting. Her works have been exhibited in Bulgaria, as well as in the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Belgium, and Luxembourg. She has also been invited to participate as an illustrator in various publications, collaborating with publishing houses from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Romania, and even China.

“Drawing accompanied my entire life mostly as a hobby, while my professional path went in the direction of publishing, advertising agencies, and marketing and PR departments. But the pressure at work was very high and affected my health - I even ended up in hospital with a serious ulcer,” Petya Konstantinova says in an interview for Radio Bulgaria:

“At some point I realized that this pace was beyond my strength and needed a change. But at first I had no clear concept of how to change things. You tell yourself you’ll slow down, rest more, not get angry. But it doesn’t work that way. You go back into the same track and pick up the same speed again. The decision came emotionally. There came a moment when I could no longer work under pressure. There are people who are resilient; I am not one of them. And one day I simply quit my job.
When I realized what I had done, panic overwhelmed me twice as much. But not for a moment do I regret it now. I am grateful for that moment I had postponed for so long. I had no concept of how to change. Because at 33, being registered at the unemployment office, with education and languages, it sounded shameful and frightening. Staying at home, I told myself I had to start looking for work immediately.

But in periods when a person feels bad, they usually turn to something that distracts them and gives them peace. For me, that was drawing. While going to job interviews, I drew much more than before. And at some point it felt like the universe turned toward me and lent me a hand, because I received an invitation for an exhibition in Luxembourg. Just when I had already found a job and started again in a marketing environment, the invitation came. I had given one of my paintings as a birthday gift, and some of the guests worked in institutions in Luxembourg. They liked the painting, asked for more, and a month later I received an invitation from a Bulgarian club in Luxembourg to be their guest artist. That’s how things started to move. The exhibition was successful, and I decided to realize another dream of mine - to create my own calendar. I invested in myself. I already knew how things worked - prepress preparation - and with that knowledge I created my first calendar. I remember I released 200 copies, and when I posted them online, people ordered them and I delivered them personally to the given addresses, which made me happy.”

“Artists seeking expression through social media are now many, but back then it wasn’t like that,” the painter recalls. She is happiest when she sees admiration in the audience’s eyes. “To receive recognition from strangers is much more valuable than pleasing your friends,” Petya says, adding that this is exactly where the success lies - gaining confidence through the appreciation and kind words of many admirers. “I don’t even dare call myself an artist yet, because I don’t have that confidence, but I have started to gain belief that I am doing something meaningful,” she shares.

“To some extent, this visibility on social media gave me access to an audience, and commissions started coming from publishing houses, advertising agencies, even companies unrelated to art. This corporate audience gives me confidence that I am doing something meaningful. I also notice that those who like my paintings are people with whom I share a similar inner rhythm, similar emotionality, or who at a given moment recognize some of their own emotion in what I have painted. I connect with the audience very easily. I really want art to be a bridge between people. I am very grateful that painting brings me together with a wonderful audience. That is perhaps the most valuable gift I receive as feedback - an art form without words, yet one through which I can easily communicate with others through images and paintings.”

And inspiration is everywhere, the artist says. It can come from a small gesture of kindness or tenderness from a stranger - seeing someone stop on the street to pet a cat, or someone bending down to move a snail from the pavement back into the grass. All these things awaken the artist’s senses. According to Petya, everyone carries goodness within, and if someone is bad today, it is because someone has turned their soul to the “wrong page.”

“I have always sought metaphor in a drawing. Things should not be literal. There should be a story, something hidden. The artist expresses what they feel but leaves the viewer to develop their own story. There should always be a playful twist. For example, if a man and a woman are together but their gazes are directed in different directions, you start creating a story around it - why aren’t they looking the same way?

Small details that can guide your thoughts toward a completely different interpretation. In one painting you can see many things if you have the eyes to see them. Drawing requires work and persistence. It is labor - imposing a rhythm on yourself, spinning the wheel of imagination. It’s easy to slip and say: today I don’t feel like drawing, I’ll rest. That’s why I force myself to sit in front of the paper, sometimes even to pour paint onto it and see what appears in the stain, what it can turn into.

A person just has to search for what gives them pleasure. For one it is writing, for another painting, for yet another - traveling. Sometimes, to get out of a difficult situation, you just need to change your perspective. A trip, for example, puts you in a different environment, and sometimes the problem you had gets replaced by another. You miss a train or take the wrong direction - and that also helps shift your focus. It is never too late to discover a new talent; you just need to connect with yourself and give yourself time.”

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Edited by E. Karkalanova

English: R. Petkova