Marek Swiatecki, Gronity, Poland
Member Since September 2006
Artist Statement Searching for my place in life, I took up many, highly differentiated occupations and generally, every time (maybe thanks to that variety) I found a lot of pleasure in them.
I used to have my own music group where I played the flute. I used to be an actor of an experimental student theater, I was the acoustician and the "home" scenographer of "NIEBO" group, where sometimes I also sang and played percussion instruments. As a cultural-educational instructor I used to train hostesses of village clubs. I organized the house at events and was involved in promotion of the Theater in Olsztyn (Poland). I used to paint and sell pictures in the streets of Paris. I used to be the program director at Radio WAMA, as well as write and record satirical "Recommendations for True Men" for Polish Radio. I also designed a number of posters, calendars and covers for records. I delivered scenography and managed the Castle Meetings "Let's Sing Poetry" in Olsztyn as well as the script, scenography and production of a performance based on paintings by Edvard Munch "The Dance of Life" (also for Polish Television).
Above all, however, I find my greatest pleasure in painting that I have been on "friendly terms" with for over 30 years. My "spécialité de la maison" is portrait painting offering the opportunity to penetrate the depths of character of my models and, since recently, also the landscape painted in pastels, the medium that is simply ideal for that purpose.
Paintings in my most recent cycle "Pastels from Green Valley", exhibited many times in numerous galleries in Europe, are really a form of documentation of the place where I have resided since recently, the beauty that I have pleasure to enjoy every day. Imbedded somehow within my landscape I could not resist painting it and suddenly it appeared that such painting represents expressing the simplest emotions - enchantment with observation of the nature, pure joy of creating. Why - paradoxically - we are looking for places that have not been spoiled by human activities; why they have such an intense and comforting influence on us? It is there where we can realize the important truth: we are a minute particle of the nature and there we can try to find "our own place in line".
I am a member of:
Polish Pastellists Association
Art du Pastel en France
Pastel Society Eastern Canada
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