Don Sahli Biography
“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 strives to continually expand his horizons, push the limits; presenting and creating his work in ways that are unexpected, fresh and stimulating. Instead of being limited by the technical bounds of painting and the expected response to subject matter, he takes these boundaries and uses them as the jumping off point: the start of something, not the end.
Don Sahli made the decision to become a professional artist at a very early age. By the time he was 17 years old, art galleries in Texas and New Mexico were selling his paintings. Sahli has earned his living as a professional artist all his adult life. Presently, galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico; Aspen, Vail, Beaver Creek, and Breckenridge, Colorado; Sedona, Arizona; Cody, Wyoming, Carmel, California, and Midland, Texas represent his work. He is quite prolific, producing numerous studio pieces — including public works and corporate commissions — and innumerable sketches and plein air works each year.
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.
“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. It’s also a critical
aspect of the artistic process … it helps one articulate what
one is thinking and doing. I have learned from the process, and I am
a much better painter since I began teaching.”
In 1995, carrying on the legacy of his teacher, Sahli founded the Sahli
School of Art in Evergreen, Colorado. He currently conducts summer
studio and garden workshops at his home in Evergreen, Colorado.
Sahli lives with his wife, Cindy, and their two sons; Jeff and Sam, in their mountain home in Evergreen.