{"id":3583,"date":"2026-05-11T12:50:59","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T12:50:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artsofbali.com\/?p=3583"},"modified":"2026-05-11T12:51:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T12:51:02","slug":"famous-balinese-artists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsofbali.com\/ru\/famous-balinese-artists\/","title":{"rendered":"Famous Balinese Artists: The Complete Guide to Bali’s Greatest Painters"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“I feel I was reincarnated on this earth to create what the gods direct.” \u2014 I Gusti Nyoman Lempad, Bali’s greatest artist, speaking one year before his death at the age of 116.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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\u0421\u0430\u0439\u0442 famous Balinese artists<\/strong> who shaped this island’s extraordinary visual culture were not simply painters \u2014 they were architects, sculptors, priests, and community leaders who happened to produce work of breathtaking beauty.<\/p>\n\n

For centuries, from the royal courts of Klungkung to the hillsides of Ubud, Bali developed one of the world’s most distinctive art traditions: rooted in Hindu mythology, transformed by European encounter, and now alive in the studios of contemporary palette knife masters working from Seminyak to Gianyar.<\/p>\n\n

This guide traces that tradition from the ancient Kamasan masters through the revolutionary Pita Maha movement of the 1930s, through Arie Smit’s Young Artists School of the 1960s, and into the hands of the painters who carry it forward today.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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The most famous Balinese artists<\/strong> include: I Gusti Nyoman Lempad<\/strong> (1862\u20131978), polymath and Bali’s greatest artist; \u0423\u043e\u043b\u0442\u0435\u0440 \u0421\u043f\u0438\u0441<\/strong> (1895\u20131942), the German painter who modernised Balinese art from Ubud; Rudolf Bonnet<\/strong> (1895\u20131978), Dutch co-founder of Pita Maha and the Museum Puri Lukisan; Arie Smit<\/strong>, Dutch founder of the Young Artists School; and I Nyoman Masriadi<\/strong> (b. 1973), whose contemporary paintings command the highest prices in Southeast Asia’s art market.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n \"Famous\n
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A classical Kamasan-style painting depicting Garuda and mythological figures from the Ramayana \u2014 the tradition that preceded and shaped all subsequent Balinese art. Flat perspective, gold ornamental border, and iconographic precision are the defining marks of this school, rooted in Kamasan village, Klungkung, East Bali, since the sixteenth century.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

The Ancient Foundation<\/div>\n

Kamasan and the Classical Origins of Famous Balinese Art<\/h2>\n\n

Long before Western artists arrived on the island, Bali had already produced a sophisticated painting tradition centred in the village of \u041a\u0430\u043c\u0430\u0441\u0430\u043d<\/strong>, in the kingdom of Klungkung in East Bali. From the sixteenth century onwards, Kamasan was the undisputed centre of classical Balinese art<\/a> \u2014 a tradition that served kings, temples, and the Hindu-Buddhist spiritual cosmos rather than collectors or markets.<\/p>\n\n

Kamasan paintings are immediately recognisable: flat figures drawn in profile, reminiscent of wayang kulit shadow puppets; earth pigments of red ochre, black soot, and white lime; borders of intricate geometric ornament; and narratives drawn exclusively from the Hindu epics \u2014 the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and the Sutasoma. These were sacred visual texts, commissioned for temples and royal courts, painted by craftsmen who were also priests. The Kamasan tradition continues today, practised by descendants of the original painter-priests in the same village, using techniques and iconographic rules passed down through generations.<\/p>\n\n

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\n 1862 \u2013 1978<\/span>\n Bedulu, Gianyar \u00b7 Ubud, Bali<\/span>\n <\/div>\n

I Gusti Nyoman Lempad \u2014 Bali’s Greatest Artist<\/h3>\n

Lempad was a polymath of extraordinary range: a traditional Balinese architect (undagi<\/em>), a sculptor of temple statues, a maker of sacred masks and cremation towers \u2014 and, from the late 1920s onwards, a painter of mythological ink drawings that defined modern Balinese art.<\/p>\n \n

Born in Bedulu, Gianyar, he spent his life under the patronage of the Ubud royal family, designing temples (including the Saraswati Water Temple in Ubud, still visited by thousands each day) and producing thousands of distinctive ink drawings on paper. His figures \u2014 elongated, distorted, drawn with unadorned line and strategic white space \u2014 were a decisive break from the crowded compositions of the Kamasan tradition.<\/p>\n \n

He co-founded the Pita Maha artists’ collective in 1936<\/a> and lived to approximately 116 years old. His works are held in the Museum Puri Lukisan, the Neka Art Museum, and the Agung Rai Museum of Art in Ubud \u2014 three institutions that collectively represent the finest archive of Balinese art on the island.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

The Transformation \u2014 1927 to 1942<\/div>\n

Walter Spies, Rudolf Bonnet, and the Pita Maha Revolution<\/h2>\n\n

The arrival of European artists in Bali during the 1920s and 1930s triggered the most significant transformation in the island’s art history \u2014 not by replacing what existed, but by opening a conversation between traditions that produced something entirely new and gave Balinese painting its first international audience.<\/p>\n\n

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\n 1895 \u2013 1942<\/span>\n Moscow \u00b7 Ubud, Bali<\/span>\n <\/div>\n

Walter Spies \u2014 The German Who Transformed Ubud<\/h3>\n

Walter Spies, a German painter and musician, arrived in Ubud in 1927 at the invitation of the Prince of Ubud, Tjokorda Raka Sukawati. He established a home that quickly became the gathering point for Western artists, writers, and intellectuals \u2014 among them Charlie Chaplin, Margaret Mead, and No\u00ebl Coward.<\/p>\n\n

But his most enduring contribution was his patient engagement with Balinese painters: providing materials, introducing concepts of perspective and anatomy, and encouraging experimentation beyond the iconographic rules of the temple tradition.<\/p>\n\n

Together with Rudolf Bonnet and the Ubud royal family, Spies co-founded Pita Maha on 29 January 1936. He was arrested in 1940 and died in 1942 when a Japanese submarine sank the ship transporting him \u2014 one of Balinese art history’s greatest losses.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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\n 1895 \u2013 1978<\/span>\n Amsterdam \u00b7 Ubud, Bali<\/span>\n <\/div>\n

Rudolf Bonnet \u2014 Builder of Balinese Art Institutions<\/h3>\n \n

Where Spies was the catalyst, Bonnet was the builder. The Dutch painter arrived in Bali in 1929 and devoted his life not just to his own art \u2014 focused on the human figure, anatomy, and Balinese daily life \u2014 but to the systematic development of Balinese painting as an international discipline.<\/p>\n \n

As co-founder of Pita Maha, Bonnet oversaw quality standards for the collective’s approximately 150 members and organised landmark exhibitions in the Netherlands and London between 1936 and 1939.<\/p>\n \n

After the Second World War, he designed and established the Museum Puri Lukisan<\/strong> \u2014 Bali’s oldest art museum, opened in Ubud in 1956. He donated his own collection of Balinese works to form its founding holdings. The Puri Lukisan remains essential for understanding the full arc of Balinese painting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n Pita Maha \u2014 founded 29 January 1936:<\/strong> The name means “great ancestor” in the Kawi language. With approximately 150 members from Ubud and surrounding villages, Pita Maha set artistic standards, connected local painters to international markets for the first time, and effectively positioned Ubud as the cultural and artistic capital of Bali \u2014 a position it holds to this day. The collective was dissolved in 1942 when Japan invaded during the Second World War, after just six years of activity that permanently changed the course of Balinese art.\n<\/div>\n\n
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“In Bali, art was never separate from life, from ceremony, or from the divine \u2014 and the greatest artists understood this not as a constraint, but as the source of everything.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n \"Famous\n
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A large-scale traditional narrative painting depicting the Barong and Rangda \u2014 Bali’s eternal struggle between protective and destructive forces, rendered in the dense, figure-filled style of the classical Balinese tradition. The gold-carved ceremonial frame is itself a work of craft. Every element carries mythological meaning; no surface is left unfilled.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

Five Schools, Five Visual Languages<\/div>\n

The Schools of Famous Balinese Artists \u2014 Each Village, Its Own Voice<\/h2>\n\n

One of the most remarkable aspects of Balinese art history is that different villages \u2014 sometimes only a few kilometres apart \u2014 developed entirely distinct painting traditions. Each school has its own palette, its own compositional logic, its own relationship to subject matter. Understanding these schools is the key to reading any Balinese painting.<\/p>\n\n

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\n \"Famous\n
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Ubud School \u2014 panoramic narrative landscape with farmers, volcanic peaks, and saturated colour. This tradition grew from the Pita Maha era: secular subjects, atmospheric perspective, and the full drama of Balinese daily life rendered with fine brushwork.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

\n \"Famous\n
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Young Artists School (Penestanan, Ubud) \u2014 flat perspective, brilliant primary colour, joyful village life. Founded by Arie Smit in the early 1960s, this style was a radical departure: children painting freely, without instruction in technique, producing work of exhilarating immediacy.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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\n Pre-16th Century<\/span>\n

Kamasan School \u2014 Klungkung<\/h3>\n

Bali’s oldest tradition. Flat wayang-style figures, earth pigments, Hindu epic narratives. Practised by painter-priests in Klungkung and held in royal and temple collections. The root of all subsequent Balinese art \u2014 see also our Kamasan guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n

\n 1930s \u2013 Present<\/span>\n

Ubud School \u2014 Ubud Region<\/h3>\n

Modernised through Pita Maha. Landscape and daily life subjects, atmospheric perspective, richer colour, individual expression. The most widely recognised Balinese style internationally \u2014 connected to our Ubud style painting guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n

\n 1930s \u2013 Present<\/span>\n

Batuan School \u2014 Batuan Village<\/h3>\n

Dense, dark compositions crowded with figures \u2014 ceremonies, mythology, the collision of Balinese and modern life. Ink drawing washed with thin layers of colour on a dark ground. Explored in depth in our Batuan painting guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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\n Arrived Bali 1956<\/span>\n Netherlands \u00b7 Penestanan, Ubud<\/span>\n <\/div>\n

Arie Smit \u2014 Founder of the Young Artists School<\/h3>\n

Arie Smit was a Dutch soldier who served in Indonesia during the Second World War and chose to stay when it ended, eventually settling in Bali. In the early 1960s, living in Penestanan near Ubud, he encountered children drawing in the sand.<\/p>\n \n

He invited them into his studio, provided them with oil paints and canvas, and gave them no instruction in technique \u2014 only encouragement to paint what they saw and felt. The result was the Young Artists School<\/strong>: paintings of brilliant, unmodulated primary colour, flat perspective, and joyful scenes of village life that owed nothing to either the Kamasan tradition or the Pita Maha refinements.<\/p>\n \n

By the 1970s, the movement had drawn more than 300 young painters from the area. The Young Artists style remains one of the most beloved and internationally collected traditions in Balinese art.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

The Living Tradition<\/div>\n

Contemporary Famous Balinese Artists \u2014 Where the Tradition Stands Today<\/h2>\n\n

The lineage that began in Kamasan’s sacred workshops did not end with the twentieth century. It continues with equal vitality in the studios and galleries of Bali today \u2014 in new materials, new techniques, and new visual languages that are unmistakably Balinese in their sensibility even when entirely contemporary in their form.<\/p>\n\n

I Nyoman Masriadi<\/strong> (b. 1973, Bali) stands as the most commercially successful Balinese artist of the contemporary era.<\/p>\n\n

His large-scale figurative paintings \u2014 heroic, often ironic depictions of the human body \u2014 command the highest prices of any artist in the Southeast Asian art market<\/a>, demonstrating that Balinese art is not a craft tradition but a sophisticated contemporary practice capable of standing alongside the finest work produced anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n\n

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\n \"Balinese\n
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Upeksa, resident artist at Arts of Bali, Jl. Raya Seminyak, applies palette knife to a monochrome impasto canvas showing farmers \u2014 a technique that builds physical layers of paint into sculptural relief. The subject is ancient; the medium is entirely contemporary.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

\n \"Balinese\n
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Upeksa with his palette \u2014 the loaded blade of colour applied directly to canvas. Palette knife painting requires immediate, committed strokes: each ridge of pigment is a decision that cannot be easily undone, demanding the same certainty that guided Lempad’s ink drawings nearly a century ago.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

\u041d\u0430 \u0441\u0430\u0439\u0442\u0435 Arts of Bali gallery on Jl. Raya Seminyak No. 42, Kuta, Bali 80361<\/a>, resident artists including our lead artist \u0410\u043b\u044c\u0437\u0435\u043d<\/strong> \u0438 \u0423\u043f\u0435\u043a\u0441\u0430<\/strong> work in the palette knife tradition<\/a> \u2014 a technique that represents one of the most physically demanding approaches in contemporary Balinese painting.<\/p>\n\n

Their figurative works cover cultural subjects deeply rooted in Balinese life: women at offering, farmers in the paddy field, the island’s landscape rendered in luminous impasto.<\/p>\n\n

The process is visible in the finished work \u2014 each ridge of paint a record of the artist’s decision and movement \u2014 and no print or reproduction can convey the tactile presence of an original.<\/p>\n\n

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\n \"Balinese\n
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Upeksa \u2014 Woman at Offering<\/em>, palette knife oil on canvas. A Balinese woman in red kebaya kneels over a traditional offering boat on water. The thick impasto surface holds light differently at every angle \u2014 a quality impossible to reproduce in print, and one of the most compelling reasons to see original Balinese painting in person. Signed and documented, Arts of Bali gallery.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n

\n \"Contemporary\n
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Contemporary palette knife \u2014 five harvest figures rendered in vivid impasto against golden paddy. The subject connects directly to the Ubud School tradition established in the 1930s; the technique is unmistakably of today. This is the continuum of famous Balinese artists’ work: the same cultural moment, built in a different material language.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n

Where to See the Masters<\/div>\n

Three Museums Where Famous Balinese Art Lives<\/h2>\n\n
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\n Est. 1956 \u2014 Ubud<\/span>\n

Museum Puri Lukisan<\/h3>\n

Bali’s oldest art museum, co-founded by Rudolf Bonnet and the Ubud royal family. Holds pre-war Kamasan works, Pita Maha masterpieces, and the full arc of Ubud and Batuan schools. The building itself was designed by Bonnet in traditional Balinese pavilion style.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n

\n Est. 1982 \u2014 Ubud<\/span>\n

Neka Art Museum<\/h3>\n

Founded by Suteja Neka, the Neka holds one of Bali’s most significant collections of I Gusti Nyoman Lempad drawings. Its galleries span traditional Balinese, Pita Maha, academic Indonesian, and contemporary works \u2014 a survey of the island’s artistic breadth across seven centuries.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n

\n Est. 1996 \u2014 Ubud<\/span>\n

Agung Rai Museum of Art<\/h3>\n

ARMA holds classical Kamasan works on bark cloth, Batuan masterpieces from the 1930s and 40s, and contemporary Balinese and Indonesian painting. Set within rice fields and traditional garden pavilions \u2014 one of Bali’s most beautiful museum experiences.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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The Tradition, Today<\/div>\n

See Contemporary Balinese Art at Arts of Bali, Seminyak<\/h2>\n

The lineage from Lempad to the palette knife painters of today is unbroken \u2014 a five-century conversation between artists, places, and the Balinese understanding of what it means to make something beautiful and true.<\/p>\n\n

At Arts of Bali on Jl. Raya Seminyak No. 42, Kuta, Bali 80361, that conversation is ongoing. Our gallery presents original works by resident Balinese artists working in palette knife, figurative, landscape, and cultural traditions. Every piece is original, signed, and documented.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\u0427\u0430\u0441\u0442\u043e \u0437\u0430\u0434\u0430\u0432\u0430\u0435\u043c\u044b\u0435 \u0432\u043e\u043f\u0440\u043e\u0441\u044b<\/div>\n

Common Questions About Famous Balinese Artists<\/h2>\n\n
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\n Who is the most famous Balinese artist of all time?<\/summary>\n

I Gusti Nyoman Lempad (1862\u20131978) is widely considered the most famous Balinese artist in history. A sculptor, architect, and painter from Ubud, he was a co-founder of the Pita Maha collective in 1936 and produced thousands of distinctive ink drawings depicting Balinese mythology and daily life. He lived to approximately 116 years. His works are in the Museum Puri Lukisan, Neka Art Museum, and Agung Rai Museum of Art in Ubud.<\/p>\n <\/details>\n\n

\n Who are the most famous Balinese painters?<\/summary>\n

The most famous Balinese painters include I Gusti Nyoman Lempad (1862\u20131978), considered Bali’s greatest artist; Walter Spies (1895\u20131942), the German who modernised Balinese art; Rudolf Bonnet (1895\u20131978), Dutch co-founder of Pita Maha and the Museum Puri Lukisan; Arie Smit, founder of the Young Artists School; and I Nyoman Masriadi (b. 1973), whose works command the highest prices in the Southeast Asian art market.<\/p>\n <\/details>\n\n

\n What did Walter Spies contribute to Balinese art?<\/summary>\n

Walter Spies arrived in Ubud in 1927 and introduced Western concepts of perspective, anatomy, and secular subject matter to Balinese painting. He co-founded Pita Maha in 1936 with Rudolf Bonnet and I Gusti Nyoman Lempad, encouraged Balinese painters to experiment freely, and connected Balinese art to international markets for the first time. Without Spies, the transformation of Balinese art from a temple craft into a globally recognised tradition would have unfolded very differently.<\/p>\n <\/details>\n\n

\n What is the Pita Maha movement in Balinese art?<\/summary>\n

Pita Maha was a Balinese artists’ collective founded on 29 January 1936 in Ubud. Its founders were the Ubud princes Tjokorda Gde Raka Soekawati and Tjokorda Agung Soekawati, German painter Walter Spies, Dutch painter Rudolf Bonnet, and Balinese master I Gusti Nyoman Lempad. The name means “the great ancestor” in Kawi. With approximately 150 members, Pita Maha set quality standards, organised international exhibitions, and positioned Ubud as the cultural heart of Bali. It was dissolved in 1942 when Japan invaded during World War II.<\/p>\n <\/details>\n\n

\n What are the main schools of Balinese painting?<\/summary>\n

The five major schools are: (1) Kamasan \u2014 ancient classical from Klungkung, depicting Hindu epics in flat perspective; (2) Ubud School \u2014 modernised through Pita Maha in the 1930s, depicting landscape and daily life; (3) Batuan School \u2014 dense dark compositions of ceremony and mythology; (4) Young Artists School \u2014 founded by Arie Smit in the 1960s in Penestanan, bright colour and naive style; (5) Contemporary Fine Art \u2014 today’s palette knife, hyper-realism, and abstract approaches evolving the tradition for global collectors.<\/p>\n <\/details>\n\n

\n Where can I see famous Balinese art in Bali?<\/summary>\n

The three most important museums are Museum Puri Lukisan (Bali’s oldest, Ubud, co-founded by Rudolf Bonnet), the Neka Art Museum (opened 1982, significant Lempad collections), and the Agung Rai Museum of Art \u2014 ARMA (established 1996, Ubud). For original works by living Balinese artists, Arts of Bali at Jl. Raya Seminyak No. 42, Kuta, Bali 80361<\/a> presents palette knife, figurative, and landscape originals by resident artists.<\/p>\n <\/details>\n\n

\n Who was I Gusti Nyoman Lempad?<\/summary>\n

I Gusti Nyoman Lempad (1862\u20131978) was a Balinese polymath \u2014 architect, sculptor, and painter \u2014 considered the most important figure in Balinese art history. Born in Bedulu, Gianyar, he spent his life under the patronage of the Ubud royal family, designing temples including the Saraswati Water Temple in Ubud, and producing thousands of distinctive ink drawings inspired by Balinese mythology and the Hindu epics. He attributed his extraordinary longevity of approximately 116 years to simplicity and service to community.<\/p>\n <\/details>\n\n

\n Are there famous contemporary Balinese artists painting today?<\/summary>\n

Yes. I Nyoman Masriadi (b. 1973) commands the highest prices of any artist in the Southeast Asian contemporary art market. The palette knife tradition is practised by resident artists at Arts of Bali gallery in Seminyak, including lead artist Alzen and Upeksa, whose figurative works on cultural Balinese subjects carry the island’s centuries-long tradition into a contemporary material language. Today’s Balinese artists work across palette knife, hyper-realism, textured mixed media, and all five classical schools.<\/p>\n <\/details>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Visit the Gallery<\/div>\n

Experience Contemporary Balinese Art at Arts of Bali<\/h3>\n

At Arts of Bali on Jl. Raya Seminyak No. 42, Kuta, Bali 80361, you can see original paintings by Balinese artists who carry this extraordinary tradition forward \u2014 in palette knife, figurative, landscape, and cultural styles.<\/p>\n\n

Every work is original, signed, and documented. Our team is always happy to tell you the full story behind any painting in the gallery, and to help you find the work that connects with you.<\/p>\n Chat With Us on WhatsApp<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n Famous Balinese Artists<\/a>\n \u0411\u0430\u043b\u0438\u0439\u0441\u043a\u0430\u044f \u0436\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043f\u0438\u0441\u044c<\/a>\n \u0422\u0440\u0430\u0434\u0438\u0446\u0438\u043e\u043d\u043d\u0430\u044f \u0431\u0430\u043b\u0438\u0439\u0441\u043a\u0430\u044f \u0436\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043f\u0438\u0441\u044c<\/a>\n Kamasan Painting<\/a>\n \u0416\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043f\u0438\u0441\u044c \u0432 \u0441\u0442\u0438\u043b\u0435 \u0423\u0431\u0443\u0434<\/a>\n Batuan Painting<\/a>\n \u0420\u043e\u0441\u043f\u0438\u0441\u044c \u043f\u0430\u043b\u0438\u0442\u0440\u043e\u0439 \u043d\u043e\u0436\u0435\u0439<\/a>\n \u0425\u0443\u0434\u043e\u0436\u0435\u0441\u0442\u0432\u0435\u043d\u043d\u0430\u044f \u0433\u0430\u043b\u0435\u0440\u0435\u044f \u0421\u0435\u043c\u0438\u043d\u044c\u044f\u043a<\/a>\n \u041a\u0443\u043f\u0438\u0442\u044c \u0438\u0441\u043a\u0443\u0441\u0441\u0442\u0432\u043e \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0430\u043b\u0438<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n