Semyon Bilmes
{{Short description|Azerbaijani-American painter}}
{{notability|Bio|date=May 2020}}
{{Infobox person
|name = Semyon Bilmes
|image =
|alt =
|caption =
|birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1955|8|29}}
|birth_place = Baku, Azerbaijan SSR
| years_active = 1955–present
|occupation = Painter
}}
Semyon Bilmes (29 August 1955) is an Azerbaijani American painter and the founder and instructor of The Ashland Academy of Art, in Ashland, Oregon, United States and Atelier Maui, in Maui, Hawaii, United States.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}}
Bilmes has achieved national recognition as an advertising, editorial, and book illustrator. Bilmes has illustrated campaigns for AT&T, CBS, General Mills, Warner Lambert, Smirnoff Vodka, Citibank, Clairol, Western Union, Alaska Airlines, and Philip Morris.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}} His work can be found on the covers of books and periodicals such as Reader's Digest and the New York Times. His oil painting, "Lady in a red Turban", was on the cover of the annual directory of top illustrators and designers in the country, American Showcase.{{cite news |title= Artists Don't have to Starve|first= Laurel|last= Darrow|publisher= Grants Pass Daily Courier |date= February 16, 1987}}
Life
Semyon Bilmes was born on August 29, 1955, in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR. His art education started when he was a child in youth classes, where he studied the fundamentals of drawing. When he reached the age of sixteen, he attended the A. Azim-Zade Academy of Art in Baku (USSR) where he was trained in the Russian Academic System. Bilmes' immigrated to New York in 1980 where he also graduated from the Parsons School of Design.{{cite news |title= Painting a New World|first= Al|last= Reiss|newspaper= Mail Tribune |date= September 30, 1990}}
As a successful artist, Bilmes founded the Bilmes Art School, where for ten years he taught art with a commercial emphasis.{{cite news |title= Ashland Illustrator Finds Artistic Freedom in the U.S.|first= Melissa|last= Martin|newspaper= Mail Tribune |date= November 23, 1989}}
Blimes later acquired and renovated a large building in Ashland, Oregon, for The Ashland Academy of Art. In 2010, Semyon with his family moved to Maui, where they opened Atelier Maui. Semyon is currently teaching at Atelier Maui. .{{cite news |url= http://www.dailytidings.com/2003/news1009/100903n3.shtml |title= Academy goes back to basics |first= Tim |last= Bousquet |newspaper= Ashland Daily Tidings |year= 2006 |accessdate= 2008-10-14 |url-status= dead |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20031126194440/http://www.dailytidings.com/2003/news1009/100903n3.shtml |archivedate= 2003-11-26 }}{{cite news |title= Illustrator Believes Basics are the Key to Success|first= Suzane|last= Goracke|newspaper= Ashland Daily Tidings |date= May 31, 1991}}{{cite news |title= Fashionably Russian|first= Cleve|last= Twitchell|newspaper= Mail Tribune |date= July 3, 1992}}
Bilmes lives on Maui with his wife and one of his four children.{{cite news |title= Working for Yourself|first= Frank|last= Silow|newspaper= Mail Tribune |date= March 19, 1992}}{{cite news |title= Finally Chasing Their Dream|first= Bill|last= Kettler|newspaper= Mail Tribune |date= November 29, 1998}}
See also
References
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Category:20th-century American painters
Category:American male painters
Category:21st-century American painters
Category:Azerbaijani male painters
Category:Soviet emigrants to the United States
Category:American people of Azerbaijani descent