I would assume that most here are already familiar with the paintings of Petar Meseldzija, as we have made reference to him and his work numerous times here on MuddyColors. Petar will be writing some guest posts for us in the near future, and I thought this a good time to formally introduce him.

Petar Meseldžija was born in Novi Sad, Serbia, in 1965. He began his career in 1981, publishing the comic strip ‘Krampi’ in the Stripoteka, one of the best known comic magazines in the country. This was followed by a series of short comics and his work on the licensed comic book ‘Tarzan’. He graduated from the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, in the Painting Department. During his studies he continued to work on comics, but more often worked on illustrations. In 1991 he illustrated his first book ‘Peter Enkorak’, published by Mladinska knjiga from Slovenia.

At the end of 1991 he moved to the Netherlands. Soon after, he stopped working on comics and dedicated himself to illustration and painting. Already well published in Europe, Americans first got a glimpse of Petar’s work in 1997 when it was included in Spectrum: Volume 4. He later continued to garner multiple awards from Spectrum, including both Silver and Gold. Petar reinforced his place in the American illustration market by producing 10 amazing book covers for Scholastic Books.

Petar has numerous book credits to his name, but most notable is ‘The Legend of Steel Bashaw’, a profusely illustrated book which he also wrote, retelling the classic Serbian folk-tale. The project, consisting of 60 paintings and drawings, took him the better part 15 years, and has been received with great acclaim both here and abroad.

You can view a large selection of Petar’s work on his WEBSITE, and also get a great behind-the-scenes look at his process on his personal BLOG.

Lastly, the good folks at DrawnToday have very recently conducted an interview with Petar. In this special interview episode, Aaron Miller and Mark Harchar sit down with our Serbian Super-hero and discuss holographic art museums, working for the Medicis, and his working methods.

The podcast can be heard here: http://drawntoday.blogspot.com/2011/04/podcast-episode-27-interview-with.html