Don Sahli

“Everybody looks for a label. I would like to be known as a painter – one who painted what he saw while wandering around on his journey.”

Don Sahli made the decision to become a professional artist at a very early age. By the time he was 17 years old, galleries in Texas and New Mexico were selling his paintings. Sahli began his formal art education at the University of Texas in Austin. A year later, he met Sergei Bongart, the famous Russian colorist. At Bongart’s invitation, Sahli followed him to California and became his last apprentice. He remained with the Russian for three years, until Bongart’s death in 1985. Sahli has earned his living as a professional artist all his adult life. Presently, his work is represented by galleries in Colorado, North Carolina, New Mexico, Wyoming and Texas.

“When I look at a painting, I want it to bring me back to when I was on the scene. I want it to convey the drama and emotion that first captured my attention, the atmosphere, and the soul of the place.”

Sahli’s work contains stylistic echoes of the Russian masters, particularly evident in his uninhibited use of color, his stern originality and unique vitality. Sahli helps to sustain an important artistic tradition, one passed from Ilya Repin, the fountainhead of all modern Russian painting, to his student, Nicolai Fechin; and from Fechin to Peter Kotov; and from Peter Kotov to Sergei Bongart; and from Sergei Bongart to Don Sahli.

“My teacher taught, his teacher taught, and I wanted to keep this tradition alive and give something back.”

In 1995, carrying on the legacy of his teacher, Sahli opened Sahli School of Art in Evergreen, Colorado. He lives with his wife, Cindy and their two sons, in their mountain home near the school.