Kasia Turajczyk » nature

Panta Rhei Has Flown the Nest

Kasia — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 22:56:12 +0000

That title is in some ways metaphorical, but nevertheless it is also literally correct. My Panta Rhei painting has been sold to someone who really loves it. To someone who is also a very nice person. It is a nice feeling to know and to be sure that my paintings are in good hands. Especially something like Panta Rhei, which has been with me for such a long time. I have had a few potential buyers through that time but we never could agree about the price, until now that is.

A few word about this painting:

Among Kasia’s paintings are some which one would not immediately connect with fantasy. However because the composition of some elements cannot be found in the real world, these paintings bring to mind thoughts about surrealism. An example of such a work is Panta Rhei – fairly economical in form, it depicts a seaside landscape with a flying Pelican, projecting a shadow on the sand and there are also wide open doors hanging over the beach. Such paintings show restlessness and tension very clearly; which could be caused by the diversity and variety of the possibile associations which every observer can find inside oneself, dependent upon ones own experience and sensitivity. (From a review by Karolina Jablonska, art curator and art historian)

Farewell Panta Rhei – Nothing is forever.

Panta Rhei - oil on board; 1997

Contemporary Art in the Community #3/n

Kasia — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 22:19:44 +0000

On October 1st, 2011 two friends came to dinner. Ami is a musician and Didge is a studying at Plymouth College of Art.

We asked them to take part in our art-video project Contemporary Art in the Community. Both of them agreed and were happy to do so. It seems both of them are into art in a big way!

Here is our 3rd video in the series:

Contemporary Art in the Community #3/n

Kasia's Studio; The Haldon Hills, Devon, South West England

In which Ami realises that art shouldn't be about "cutting us off from the fabric of our life experience. Art is about coming up underneath our life experience, and lifting us up".

More on Contemporary Art in the Community #3/n

Contemporary Art in the Community #2/n

Kasia — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 12:37:40 +0000

Here is the second video of the project Contemporary Art in the Community. We had an unexpected visit from Doreen on October 1st 2011. She is very much into art and she liked our idea. The video has been taken outside my studio on the Haldon Hills in Devon. In this video Doreen recognises Hell when she sees it, and feels herself drowning in a really stormy, turbulent sea in one of my paintings.

More on Contemporary Art in the Community #2/n

Contemporary Art in the Community #1/n

Kasia — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 22:33:09 +0000

“Contemporary Art in the Community” is a joint project between me Kasia Turajczyk and econnexus.org.

The idea of taking art to the community came from Jim (my partner). I think he was just bored with my constant monologue about contemporary art, or to be more accurate perhaps I should say modern contemporary art.

My monologue was about these issues:

How alienated modern contemporary art is from the image about art of the average man and woman in the street. The average person visiting a very contemporary art gallery or modern art centre at the present time doesn’t understand most of the presenting art works. She or he wants to understand the “art works”. Because they can’t understand it, explain it, find any sense in it, they think they don’t possess the academic knowledge about modern art, and they just don’t like it.
How alienated, exhausted and recessive art that is currently presented in contemporary art galleries, art shows and modern art museums. Actually, nobody understands contemporary art these days: not the art historicists, not the art curator, not even the people who are writing the articles in the art magazines or introductions in the books. Very often even the makers/the artists don’t understand them either. They just like it and make it up, because that is what others expect of them.
Art doesn’t exist anymore. Most of the 'Art' isn't art any more. Nothing is art and everything is art. Art is about personal and emotional engagement. You like it or you do not, you feel it or you do not feel it; it makes you laugh, it makes you cry, it makes you angry, it makes you disgusted. It is OK! How few techniques and skills are possessed by the new generation of students graduating from the Art Colleges these days.
Most of the artists presented in museums are talking to themselves, and have an inner dialogue with their empty mind.
However Pablo Picasso said: “Everyone wants to understand art. Why not try to understand the song of a bird? .. People who try to explain pictures are usually barking up the wrong tree.” Art is about feeling….or should I say NON-ART is about sensation. Maybe we never should think about what an artist is trying to convey, just concentrate on what the piece means to you, how it makes you feel. After all it is your personal experience!

And so forth and so forth…..

One day, just a few hours before our trip to the ocean (body boarding) Jim came out with a idea about taking ART to ordinary people and discussing contemporary art and art in general. “And the word became flesh and dwelt among us” since September 29, 2011.

The primary aim of the project is to take contemporary art out of galleries and museums, to take it out of artist's studios, and to show it to all sorts of different people in a variety of environments and locations around South West England.

We would like to discover from the ordinary people of Devon and Cornwall, what kind of art they like and what they don’t like. What contemporary art means to them? Are they interested in art at all? Is there a place for art in their life, living room, kitchen, mind? Or maybe they are not interested in art at all? These are the sort of questions we are going to be asking people on our travels. Maybe we will ask you too!

The preview of Contemporary Art in the Community

Widemouth Bay, North Cornwall, South West England
Thursday 29th September 2011

In which Graham meets a being born in the nebula of the constellation of Orion for the very first time, and is moved by Mintaka's message for mankind.

Gravity's Harlequin from Peter Pan Series

Kasia — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 22:03:25 +0000

In this new work from the Peter Pan Series I wanted to capture a movement. I liked the idea of the clown in motion. I have already painted him motionless, so this time I wanted to paint him in action. There is a certain uncertain power which is pulling my little harlequin- clown in one direction. However when you look very close and you pay the attention to the body of the harlequin you can discover an inclination to go in the opposite direction. And there is also Gravity, the natural phenomenon by which the body of my little friend attracts with a force proportional to his mass. Instead of a force it could of course be space-time curvature instead. An interesting idea for a new painting.

Gravity's Harlequin - acrylics on canvas; € 1.450

Devon Open Studios 2011 – third day "Out of the blue".

Kasia — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:20:35 +0000

Yesterday completely out of the blue a German couple visited my studio. They had just followed the yellow signs, not knowing what would be at the end of them. They not only loved my paintings but even bought one. We talked about modern art, especially modern conceptual German art. She lives in Essen and he is from Wuppertal. I absolutely enjoyed my time spent with those two very interesting individuals who really were into modern conceptual art.

She loves my weird stuff, like My Brain

A conversation with my cosmos, 2010 from the Series My Brain

and all my collages but also my more representative work. They thought about buying my Tree.

The Decrepit limbs of Mr Elm

At one point we went to my Summer Studio (I only paint there between late Spring and middle Autumn). When he saw my Blueberry Biker he decided to buy it. So my lovely Blueberry Biker has left me. Now I have to paint his next adventure and his beautiful lover.

In the late afternoon I had another visitor, a lovely lady who visited me a year before.

The third day of Devon Open Studios 2011 wasn't so bad after all!

Blueberry Biker on his way to his lover hidden in a golden cage.

The Devon Open Studios 2011 – second day

Kasia — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 18:54:21 +0000

Today is the second day of Devon Open Studios 2011. No visitors today. Yesterday a couple with a child visited me. They just saw a sign on the wall and because the child needed to take a leak they stopped and visited me. They were nice people but not really interested in my paintings or in what I am doing or why I am doing it.

I have created a new installation in the garden. It is about my insomnia. I got the inspiration from my own problems with sleeping and from a book I received from my 'art fan' in Brussels. If he is reading this post, he will be happy to know that I found the publication about Narcolepsy very educational and interesting.

Here is a photo of the installation:

Insomnia - Narcolepsy - Installation 2011 by Kasia B.T.

I am starting to think about my dream to make it as an artist as something very irrational, utopian and pathetic. Who needs art, who needs my art? If you have finished an art academy and if you don't "make it" within the next three years then you will never make it. The talent, ideas, originality, whatever it is of no importance after that. It is just the significance to being discovered by a very important art dealer and some luck. Then the marketing machine will start to work for you. Otherwise it will not.

Here are a few images of my work in progress:

Landscape in gold and blue

A bird in colours of Devon

The Gravitation of the Clown - painting in progress

We are born alone, we die alone together

Devon Open Studios 2011

Kasia — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:16:19 +0000

Tomorrow is Thursday 1st September and it's the launch of Devon Open Studios 2011!

It takes place at the Northcott Theatre in Exeter, Stocker Road, EX4 4QB between 2-9 PM. There will be speeches at 3pm, followed later by entertainment and of course the artist demonstrations. Several artists will present their art works, and one of them will be me. Refreshments will also be available. It's a great space, and we hope (the artists and the DOS organisation) it will be a great day, too. The studios themselves are open from 10 AM on Saturday 3rd for two weeks.
In an article about Devon Open Studios 2011 The Independent said:

Worlds away from the enormous price tags of London's Cork Street, or the glossy modernism of the Frieze Art Fair in Regent's Park, London, Devon Open Studios offers visitors the rare privilege of viewing art in the context of where and how it is made. And, should you feel like buying something, you're unlikely to have to re-mortgage your house to do so.

The county has long captivated artists with its dramatic landscapes. Local institutions such as the Cider Press Centre near Dartington, the Devon Guild of Craftsmen in Bovey Tracey and the Plymouth Arts Centre have long provided visitors with the edited highlights of Devon's artistic life. But creative types are now keen to show their work on their own terms, hence the burgeoning success of the Open Studios project.

Now in its seventh year, the event has grown inexorably from a handful of artists showing work in their garages and living rooms to a well-organised trail. Weavers, potters, glassblowers, photographers, printmakers, sculptors, jewellers, quilt-makers and wood-turners are all more than happy to explain their practices to visitors for a fortnight, over tea. The event costs nothing to the visitor and there is no prescribed route. The best bet is to pick through the brochure to see whose artwork appeals and just turn up on their doorstep.

The invitation to the Launch of Devon Open Studios 2011

Devon Open Studios 2011 also has its own channel on YouTube. Here's Greg Ramsden talking about "Discipline in Painting":

I met Greg a year ago at the South West Contemporary Art Fair in Totnes. He is a very nice person but also a brilliant painter, I have to admit it.

The process of creating an acrylics painting on canvas

Kasia — Sun, 29 May 2011 14:51:43 +0000

Last year during the process of painting my Magnolia acrylics paintings I have been recorded myself. I made a short video document from the fragments I recorded. Every single artist has an own unique style of painting. Some love to paint when they are naked, some needs alcohol in their blood, while others prefer a good quality joint. I prefer listening to music and talking to myself. Dependent of the sort of art I create sometimes I sit, sometimes stay up, sometimes I run or walk around the work I create. Large abstract paintings or collages often lie on the floor or on the grass in the garden and I run as a crazy bull around them. From time to time I lie on the floor or kneel down.

Here in this short video I am just sitting in the chair in my summer studio, the canvas is in the easel and I behave very normal and conventional. Sometimes I am normal.

Kasia in the Countryside

Kasia — Tue, 24 May 2011 11:12:13 +0000

I created a video/slideshow to present my art from the last two years. Paintings, collages, installations, small sculptures all created in Devon, in Dunchideock. And of course lots of nature, black swans, trees, a cat and nice music.

Kasia in the Countryside