Bukhara miniaturist Davron Toshev started painting when he was five. At the age of 14 he took up an apprenticeship at the workshop of his uncle – sculptor Hamro Zoyirov – where he spent four years. In 1990, in an arts studio in Tashkent, he met artist Khurshid Nazirov, who introduced the painter to the world of miniature painting, and whom Toshev now describes as his main teacher.

The art of miniature has transformed the life of the young artist, becoming his calling. He creates his exquisite works on the remarkable hand-made Samarkand paper, trying to use exclusively natural pigments. A miniature painting is a result of an extremely delicate, thorough and meticulous work. Toshev creates his miniatures using a special magnifying glass, and each painting takes months and sometimes years to complete. It is noteworthy that he painted one of his miniatures for seven years. His works are a result of inspiration the artist takes from the Eastern poetry and literature, in particular Alisher Navoi’s poems, whose literary characters have become the main themes of his works. “Uzbek literature is an infinite, inexhaustible source of inspiration for the world in which I live and which lives in me. I try to visually convey the immortal verses of wisdom, love and history,” says the miniaturist.