Time to inject some colour into your Friday! I asked painter, Kasia Pawlak, to answer a few questions about her work and the inspiration behind her vibrant pieces. She mainly paints cities from around the world, including Tokyo, New York, and Venice. I hope you enjoy her work as much as I do!
Your painting style is very distinct and unique. How did this develop?
I am still at the beginning of my painting adventure, my style changes with time, I am not sure it is developed yet, I am very impatient to try new things and see how they will turn out.
Venice
Let’s talk about process. What are the steps you take to creating a piece? Do you sketch on-site or work from photographs?
I paint from photographs I find online. I usually google search let’s say New York or Tokyo and choose what catches my eye at the very moment, crop the photograph the way I want and “borrow” the main lines. My paintings always turn out very different from the original photograph. I like looking at a photo and changing the image on canvas as I paint. Often friends ask me to show them a photo I painted from, but it happens that I am not able to recognize or match the painting to the photograph that served me as a base. I sometimes do a quick sketch on small sheet of paper, but usually I start right away on canvas. I am impatient and I don’t have much time to paint, so usually I just start with the canvas and see how it goes.
Portofino
It’s obvious travel has inspired your work. Where has been your favourite place to paint and why?
I like painting big cities like New York or Tokyo. Tokyo is very special to me, I used to lived there, it feels natural to paint it, I hope you can feel the ambience of the city through my paintings. It is vibrant, noisy, colorful and full of life. I’m also into Mediterranean cities. Sometimes I feel like just throwing the paint on canvas and do a pure abstract.
Tokyo
Aside from travel, what inspires your work?
Other artist inspire me. I like watching works of different artists. I am impressed what people are able to do.
I developed interest in painting when I was in my 20s while watching my mother painting. I did a few paintings in oil and pastels, but at that time I would copy and I was never satisfied with the result, because I would compere what I had painted to the originals. I felt like I was not good enough and not talented if I couldn’t copy exactly or better.
Chinatown
I quit painting for many years, but I would receive my mothers paintings as gifts from time to time and each time I varnished them and felt the brush in my hand I would say to myself I need to go back to painting one day, it feels good.
And I did, but I was not interested in copying. I started looking for information how to paint spontaneously, from my heart. I fell in love with internet. There is so much information about anything you need. I watched artist speaking about how to let go, listened to interviews where they would explain their process of creation or just watched videos of people painting. All that helped me to try by myself. I am still trying, there is a new lesson with each painting.
You can find more of Kasia’s work on her Facebook page.
What do you like most about Kasia’s work? Do you prefer the colourful pieces or the black and white ones?
