Kasia Turajczyk » trees

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

The Tree tales Series – My friend Oak

Kasia — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 13:35:24 +0000

I love trees; I guess it is impossible not to love them. They are the silent guards of human history, both collective and private memories. If they only could talk…they would be able to tell us the most incredible stories, stories beyond our imagination.

My new series is about the trees “The Tree tales”. The trees from my paintings are telling stories: sad, cheerful, dramatic, funny, horrible, disgusting, beautiful…sometimes real, sometimes surreal, and sometimes fantastic……conform our lives, lies, black swans and quantum physics.

Yes, I am back into the figurative style. I never painted trees before because I found them so perfect in reality that every copied image looked very kitschy to me. It is a fact, that nature in its essence is perfect; most of the landscape paintings, that are trying to copy nature, are only a bad imitations of it. The most important aspect is to make an own interpretation of the subject and add also personal emotions into it.

So, what changed my mind, why this Tree Series? The most important aspect is being very close to nature, being surrounded by an incredible beautiful landscape, and observing the structure of the nature every day. Another aspect is my different approach to painting the nature. I don’t just paint the trees, my trees are the context of my work and the subject of it, both.

And most important, my trees are telling stories…and if you listen very carefully you can hear them. Most of us are living in an urban environment, in big cities, far away from forests, woodlands and trees. Most of us aren’t surrounded by ageing, ancient oaks, aches, elms, birches, maples, English yews and all the other distinguished, sometimes frivolous beautiful trees. I am just giving back; I am very fortunate to live in Devon, surrounded by beautiful, often very old trees.

My favourite tree is the oak. It looks like an old, wise Knight, or maybe a transcendental Wizard with its gnarled branches. My oak, is a very old one from Dunchideock. It is telling a story about ancient battles, lovers trysts and quarrels. Everything is in there if you pause long enough to tune in to this magnificent time portal.

"My Friend Oak is telling a story, again" – acrylics on canvas, 2010

Inspired by the colours of Devon

Kasia — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 19:15:51 +0000

My first 17 months of living in the country, in a real village have been a wonderful experience and bore lots of wonderful paintings, collages, installation and even small sculptures. The nature of Devon inspired me to be very creative with materials and to experiment with unusual topics for me. I hope it will move me forward to discover new possibilities for the surface, texture, patterns of my paintings and to invent new original genres.

What are the inspirations for my new work?. Definitely the colours and the sounds of the garden of Lyalls Cottage and the fields and meadows around Dunchideock, of Devon; the animals in and around the garden; the hills behind the river Exe in the East and de shapes of Exmoor in the North, the shooting stars at the cloudless sky in the night and all the others inexpressible sensational impulses and invisible mystical creatures.

I am so happy to be here, Devon is a wonderful spot to live!

Here are the images of my new collages and installations. I will make a separate post about the sculptures.

collage canvas prints

The Secret Garden of Lyalls Cottage

Kasia — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:06:31 +0000

Since three months ago, we have lived in Dunchideock in Lyalls Cottage. Dunchideock is a small, old village, with the house itself dating from around the 15th century. But, the house as a house is only a house; walls, a ceiling, thatched roof, and a floor. The most important part of the property is the garden: a beautifully fabulous, magical and bewitching place. The garden and the house are surrounded by all kinds of nature including horses, rabbits, deer, pheasants, foxes, and veritable smorgasbords of birds which all emerge silently from the forest, hills, meadows and fields. The scent of life: the scent of a real, simple, rural life.
All the nature, the garden, the air, the colours and the music of Dunchideock are inspirations for my new paintings. I spent almost my whole life in big, bigger, and even the biggest cities. If I had been told, say, four years ago, that I would have loved to live in a small village, I would have proclaimed that the person was totally irrational…

And see me now! I don’t even want to think about living 24 hours, 30 days per months, even 12 months per year in Amsterdam, Vienna or London. I am just perfectly happy here, even if it rains cats and dogs almost for a month. I am just happy, simply happy, audaciously happy. I am happy because I can be, watch, see, breath, absorb, take up and feel delighted by the nature around me.

Dunchideock, the garden of Lyalls Cottage, the nature of South Devon are the inspiration of my new paintings. The new paintings are combination of my observation of the surrounding nature, my imagination, the happiness of creation, painting, experimenting, and transforming that which surrounds me and how I experience it.

Here are a few of the new acrylic paintings from my series ‘The Secret Garden of Lyalls Cottage’ and “The Shadow of the Invisible in Dunchideock”.

It is raining in Red in Dunchideock - by Kasia B. Turajczyk; 50,2 cm x 40,8 cm; from the series The Secret Garden of Lyalls Cottage

The Tree in the Secret Garden - Kasia B. Turajczyk; 50,8 cm x40,2 cm; from the series The Secret Garden of Lyalls Cottage

The night has fallen down in Dunchideock II by Kasia B. Turajczyk 50,8 x 40,2 cm; From the series "Shadow of the invisable"