Biographie

Artist Statement

I live between Switzerland and France, but I spent all my childhood and part of my youth in Poland. I have been painting since I was a child and grew up in the painting studio of an artist, a close friend of my parents, where I was introduced to the oil technique at the age of 6.

Painting soon became essential to my lifestyle and I thought I could paint while doing another job. Besides drawing and painting techniques, I completed my university studies in culturology at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland. There I studied art history, philosophy, literary criticism, pedagogy, as well as the management of cultural institutions.

However, always passionate about painting and continuing to practice it, I soon realized that I would need three or four lives not only to be able to practice fully my professions, but especially to paint everything that inspires me. Finally, I decided to concentrate solely on being a painter.

I paint figurative and I have periods of abstract. In the figurative part, my favorite subject is femininity and its relationship with space. Using a classical oil technique, I paint images, narrative scenes with the woman as subject. I am not interested in the psychology of my subject: I like the idea of leaving the viewer free to interpret the story.

My goal is to immerse the viewer into the scene, which becomes the soil of a performance. The narrative can be created through interactions between the subject and its environment, where everything plays a role to be used as a symbol. I take a lot of inspiration from women’s photos on Instagram because the settings are ready to be used. I choose images that fit my state of mind, in which I could identify with my own femininity, finding the keys and symbols in them. I particularly enjoy painting Léanne because of her theatrical staging that borders on drama and humor. Her femininity is exhilarating, her beauty exuberant and her self- deprecation excellent.

I live in Switzerland in the Lake Geneva area, while also spending a lot of time in the south of France. Switzerland offers us a fabulous and magical landscape with its lakes and mountains. Here, it would be difficult for me to resist the exercise of plein-air painting because it is such a great lesson of humility. Motivated by Marc Dalessio art, a great landscape master who introduced me to the plein-air painting, I paint outside regularly.

I also have abstract periods. It is always surprising and never planned. The irresistible urge to abstract often comes after long hours spent in my studio on a series of figurative paintings. Abstract work allows me to clear my mind and reset my eyes away from the control of the hand and the brush. At this point, I paint mental images, randomly translated into abstract in a very quick manner. I use my aesthetic inspirations of the moment, such as decorative objects like ancient blown glass from China. By simply using the technique of automatic writing, I mix all techniques such as acrylic, oil, pigments and collage. I love these moments of creation because they are like a big vacation for me.

Self-taught and truly eclectic, many masters have inspired and fascinated me. I draw from all my real life’s resources, knowledge and inspirations. In my paintings I hope to remain deeply rooted in my era, my environment and my personal life.