Orlin Mantchev

Home: Pouch Cove, Newfoundland
Title: James Baird (first in series “The Cosmos I am”)
Media: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 152 x 152 cm
Instagram: @orlin_mantchev

ARTIST STATEMENT

This portrait of James Baird is part of my ongoing series *The Cosmos I Am*, which explores portraiture as a layered and evolving record of lived experience. Using a meditative, pointillist technique, I build the image from thousands of dots—each one a symbolic imprint of memory, thoughts, emotional stories, all forming a very rich visual archive of personal identity.

James was the first person to become my dear friend, art collector, and art dealer after I arrived in Canada as a refugee from Bulgaria in 1990. Decades later, this commissioned portrait reflects not only his recognizable presence, but also our enduring friendship and shared journey. Through months of meditative, deliberate dot-making, I aim to honour the invisible, interconnected stories that shapes his visible, complex self.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Orlin Mantchev is a Bulgarian-born Canadian artist based in Pouch Cove, Newfoundland. He received his MFA in Painting from the Nicolai Pavlovich Art Academy in Sofia in 1989 and immigrated to Canada the following year.

His art-practice blends classical training with a contemplative representational style that explores the interconnected identity of personal and cosmic ecosystems, and in his abstract works the interplay between the visible and unseen into an unfolding mindful experience.

He has exhibited across Canada and internationally. His work is held in public and private collections.

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