Ad maiorem

Hello again!

I am back to creating art, trying out different mediums, styles and places of work.

This is me completing my watercolour cityscape in Little France cafe, in Edinburgh. The reference photo I took myself couple of days earlier, couple of streets away.

Droplet of hope

Hello, after a break let me invite you to my world of colours.
Today I would like to share with you this quick sketch on the green colour, to have the hope as the background for future work. The paper is really bright, deep, succulent green, not sure if a photograph plus different screen settings give the justice to my green.
I am fascinated by contrasts and gentleness, the other of the charcoal medium, and the contrasts - of meaning  ( charcoal usually brings to mind black, not sanguine or sepia), and the contrast of soft colours on strong background... The creation was much more about the colours, than shapes or forms, though the drop and the tree, or the mountain were important too, on the personal, metaphorical level.

And what was the inspiration? All the plethora of experiences, images, thoughts and dreams, not sure which one was the straw which broke the camel's back, or in Polish, which drop was the one, which caused the water to overflow. Something has just started because it was enough and one more...

Two moons

This is my play with oil colours, and learning that Artists' Spririt smells differently to what I thought it should - well, I still learn English, I will work on this further once I get rid of the ever present smell of the solvent....

Multiple drama

Technique used:

 

- The first layer is invisible now. It was a beautiful sunrise painted in watercolours, mainly pink and diluted reds – and in its invisibility it is no longer depicting everyday life, or a life before.

 

- The second layer is visible as there are some cracks under the paint. It  is painted on top of the first landscape. I put thick layers of poster paints, black and grey shadows in order to depict something unspeakable and painful in people's lives - maybe hunger, war, or persecutions, even dangerous escape. This layer dried and cracked and is peeling leaving a broken ugly feeling, with glimpses or memories of a previous better life.

 

- The top layer - which is the one visible now is done with acrylics and crushed eggshells - it shows an iceberg or a wall with rubble or sea waves in the foreground, and a rough sea and ominous skies in the background. There is no visible way out; there are no happy colours, there is no idea where to go from now on...

 

The message:

 

What I tried to show is the complexity and multilayer of the dramas or difficulties of life, or within one place. It is inspired by, but not restricted to, the stories of the multitudes of immigrants escaping the atrocities of their homeland desperate for a better life, It is also for all those who did not make it alive, all the broken families and embraces the people who feel endangered by their arrival, by the numbers, by the businesses they could be losing, and the message of the politicians who say nothing or  worse, say offensive things...

 

And where is help? Where is hope? What to do?

The meadow of smiling lips - against the rules of colours

I wanted to check whether it is possible to go against the rules - I tried to create picture with blue in the foreground and warm salmon-ish colour in the clouds, in order to play with the feel of distance - according to the rules it should be warm colours in the foreground, because they seem closer to the viewer and bigger too, and cooler tones should be in the back, because the air is bluish tint, and cool seems smaller too. With this attempt I actually have both cool and warm in both positions, the habit of many years is difficult to change - but I shall keep experimenting.

Enjoy the picture!

PS My poppies are still work in progress, to some look more like lips or saucers, the merrier the better. :-)

More modern flowers

My artistic appettite is growing - now I am learning from other artists, Inspired by the exhibition in Eden copurt I have created the flowers in a more contemporary fashion. I like the colours, but feel uneasy a bit about the simple almost schematic aproach, it is not something I am used to doing.

This bandid stood sideways - I had a horisontal photo, on my laptop showed horisontal, when uploaded to blogger - jumped ike a mad horse, Sorry to all the viewers...

Art duo

This is co-production with a fellow artist Alina Katarasinska Tokar.