ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

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Zara Mastenko is a Bulgarian artist known as the Queen of Flowers.

Biography
Zara Mastenko was born on 16 November 1936 in Sofia. She was the last, ninth child in the crowded family of Constantine and Elena. She graduated from the National Choreographic School, a major in ballet, but her destiny determines a completely different future.

It all started in the 1980s in Kiev, Ukraine. At that time Zara was married to the famous Russian filmmaker Nikolai P. Mastenko. One morning, after a strange dream about his mother presenting her with a picture and a candle lit in her hand, Zara finds an ancient frame. She wishes to recreate what she saw at night and asks her husband for the necessary painting materials. Nikolai Mastenko finds only three colors of paint, a canvas the size of the old frame, but forgets about brushes. However, the very next morning Zara's done with the painting.

Nikolai Mastenko is amazed by the professional performance and impact of the canvas. He buys another 10 pieces and says: Zaara, you must keep drawing! Zara answers: Buy me butter. She closes herself in the living room of their apartment and doesn't leave him for two days. When Zara opens the door, she's already changed her fate. Nikolai Mastenko has invited friends of artists, directors, actors without seeing what his beloved wife has created. They all unanimously appreciate what they have drawn and declare it sincere, beautiful and unique.

Thus appears Zara Mastenko's unique finger painting technique, where by touching the canvas more than 5000 paintings and over 70 solo exhibitions are born in Bulgaria and abroad: Austria, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Brazil, Russia.

Every piece of Zara Mastenko has an extreme sense of painting. Its sails speak of love, beauty, sometimes sadness. The paintings are psychological studies telling an amazing human history. The sails of Zara Mastenko speak with their names: Through the paintings Zara Mastenko shares his life philosophy based on much love, faith, hope and goodness.

Zara Mastenko died on 7 February 2019 in his home in Sofia.

Sources

bTV, April 13, 2012, interview for
bTV, February 12, 2019
Eurocom.bg
Kanal3.bg Mastenko the finger painting

Bulgarian Artists
Died in Sofia
Born in Sofia