Midnight Rose
18" x 20" $17,800

Mushrooms

Semyon Bilmes is an Azerbaijani-American painter and the founder and master instructor of The Ashland Academy of Art, in Ashland, Oregon.

Bilmes achieved national recognition as an advertising, editorial, and book illustrator with campaigns for AT&T, CBS, General Mills, and many others. 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.

Semyon was born in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR. His art education started when he was a child in youth classes where he studied basic fundamentals of drawing. At 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.

As a successful artist, understanding the need for classical art education, Bilmes founded the Bilmes Art School, where for ten years he taught art with a commercial emphasis.Bilmes later acquired and renovated a large building for The Ashland Academy of Art in in Ashland, Oregon. In 2010, Semyon and his family moved to Maui where they opened Atelier Maui. Semyon is currently teaching at Atelier Maui.

Night Leaves