departures and returns
Two artists explore seasonal migrations and migrations between disciplines; journeys home and journeys into the imagination.
The truth is: I move back and forth. I have been for years. While sculpture feels instinctive, I cannot stop longing for painting, seduced by vibrant colour or a memory of it. It is both ongoing and instant. The show presents my new body of oil on canvas ( 2024-2026) and the latest ceramic sculptures I have been working on after an intense time of bronze casting.
My work is closely tied to exploring art history in the form of dialogue within my work. I work generally on a small scale, and in series. Exploring form and pictorial space in modest, sparse, self contained language.
Figuration – intimate, at times sensual mostly in the form of one confined to their inner world interests me as a keen observer of people engaged in the moment of seemingly being alone. These moments are an excuse to imagine stories – both fabricated and real and to work in classic art form of nude. The sculptures grapple with the colour of Scotland – my home for the past twenty years. Colour is more remembered than recorded.
The sculptures/ creatures brought to life in a process of kiln firing allude to Shinto; multi gods, to anime, playing with sense of place and provenance of object. The glazing seemingly incidental – is quite complex. The colour and texture are done by merging the surface and body of clay into one. The body of clay gives it its structure and final look. This approach was inspired by one of the six ancient kilns of Japan. Then, typically for me, reinterpreted to work here and now; and with materials I can find at hand.
With each departure and return, I revisit and refine my take on art canons and formal language of sculpture; returning to the question of: private and public, universal and personal, narrative and emotion.
I was born in Poland, studied painting at Edinburgh College of Art and at Kyoto Seika University; I am a recipient of the RSA Wilhelmina Barns- Graham Travel Award. My work is held in private collections in: Switzerland, Italy, Norway, Japan and UK, as well as in the collections of Royal Scottish Academy.
École de Paris, Flemish Painting, Italian “Primitives”, Polish Colourists, Post Minimal Art, Arte Povera and School of Things have been and are my ongoing influences.
I draw directly from cliff tops or along the coast as well as take photographs and videos. I look for characteristic gestures and movements that indicate significant features of their behaviour. I convey these in drawings and 3-D forms using drawing media, clay, plaster, aluminium mesh and card. My sculptures thus point the way towards a story about the little known lives of these beautiful seabirds many of which are pelagic for most of the year, spread out near and far across the globe. They also convey my response to to their beautiful forms, their grace and movement.
Birds have the enviable ability to be at home in the air and on land. Seabirds are also at home round our shores or far out at sea. No wonder they have their central place in myth and legend as messengers or intermediaries between these spheres. Equally they have innumerable psychological references in symbol and metaphor. Perhaps this is why I have always been fascinated by birds and their behaviour.
I was brought up in Edinburgh, went to school there and studied sociology and anthropology at Edinburgh University. After research and teaching in Uganda 1971 to 1973, I moved to live and work in Selkirk.
While pursuing a career in education, I studied sculpture with the Open College of the Arts, took degree course modules at Edinburgh College of Art and courses at the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop. I’ve had a studio at Selkirk Wasps since 2005 and have exhibited in group shows in Edinburgh and the Scottish Borders.
Notes for buyers
Red dots are sold.
Measurements are of the picture (height first).
The works of art can be bought online and sent with post and packaging, to mainland Britain at the purchaser's consideration, and risk.
We do not send works abroad.
Please contact us by the contact page and tell us the name of the painting you are interested in.
All copyright of works of art remains with the artist.
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