​                                                                                                             ARTIST STATEMENT


My artworks derive from studying nature, but the paintings are transformed into very minimal and abstract form. The initial ideas always come from my experience of the world. Even though they originate in reality, the conditioning of structure and order in painting introduce them into the world of art, and they develop in the painting itself. In this way forms observed in the world are released from their reality and acquire their own individual characters.
I want my paintings to be an experience of colour. I use brushes and paint with no  mediums as I want my colour to be pure as much as possible. Its transformation can take weeks, layer by layer, until the expected deepness appears. I prepare the canvases using my own special technique and I often use pigments to make my own paint. The result is the painting with very deep, velvet like colour. I enjoy working in huge scale so that these small fragments of the world, which I observe every day, are transformed into macro studies of colour.


From 2007-2013 I lived in South Africa and many of my paintings come from memories of this beautiful country. My recent works are inspired by the spectacular Calgary sky and light and Salt Spring Island’s flowers.


Alicja Swiatlon