Martiros Sarayan  was born to a farmers family near Rostov on Don, in the small Armenian populated town of Novy- Nakhichevan.  Martiros Saryan is my hero! This is a man of an utmost integrity,  an infinite goodness, a full devotion to his homeland and immense affection toward others. He never sought fame or wealth. One single thought was constantly on his mind “ARMENIA”. All his life, Martiros was obsessed and possessed by the love of his country and the survival of his countrymen and countrywomen. Early in his career, he established a name for himself in Russia and got plenty of opportunities to leave his half destroyed and impoverished country  to the United States.

Unlike his compatriots  and contemporaries Wassily Kandinsky,  Marc Chagall and many others,  Sarian did not leave for the West.  Martiros refused to leave Armenia, its mountains, prairies, burning sun and beloved people. Until the very end of his life, Armenia remained the major theme of his  artistic creativity, quest for the beauty, the eternal wisdom through colors and the immortality of shapes and forms on the linens. Armenia was his main and principal theme work. His paintings on the nature of his beloved Armenia have a bigger than life, monumental, gigantic and epic proportional dimensions. Works like: "Armenia", "Midday Rest", "My Courtyard". Sarayan wrote: "My intention is to picture the visible survival of our small country after its tragic epic soaked in blood and purified in faith. This piece of land on the slopes of Mount Ararat I look upon as the source of our hope. I wish to show the world that this mountainous little country exists and keeps in its bosom just a handful, but hard-working people, whose heroic history is symbolized by the centuries old spiritual treasures."

     qqFlowers of Kalaki, 1914

With the coming of Martiros Sarayan, Armenian art began to change and commenced to create its own identity free of Russian and French art influence which have heavily dominated the past era and deeply made its mark and put its signature on the work of all the previous Armenian masters. Under the influence of his first travel to the homeland of his fathers in 1901, Sarayan created a series of paintings in pantheist spirit, " Mythology, Fantastic Visions, Fairy Tales and Dreams," artistically and psychologically influenced by Symbolism.  He wanted to free his style from foreign influences, Russian, Anatolian, French, you name it, but, he was not totally immune. As the father of modern Armenian painting, Sarayan while developing his painting style worked in all the newest art venues, theories and  most recent trends.  Unquestionably,  he was the first Armenian painter to recognize  and preach the necessity  of creating, forming, inventing  an individual  new style based and established upon  ancient national traditions and values.