Exhibition: Katarzyna Nowak at Tea Amantes

After managing to fix the family meal after work, I made the 18:38 bus down to town and to view this fine exhibition among pleasant company at Tea Amantes.

These are big works and finely painted with pastel but quite intense shades. I’m afraid they wouldn’t fit into our little house (our long gallery is full already).

Katarzyna is a Blackpool self-taught artist who has been working in oils and acrylic for over twenty years. Her work aims to project positivity and to focus on life’s highs. She says that ‘a love-centric approach and a pursuit of internal balance bring us forward, the brighter side of existence’.

This ‘Golden Energies’ collection features six oil paintings, each measuring 120cm x 100cm. Using bright pastel colours to represent love and connection and a contrasting black background to symbolise the spiritual connection and the search for a deeper understanding. The collection explores the idea that love and spirituality exist within us all, regardless of gender. The Golden Energy depicted in the paintings serves as a unifying element, connecting the pieces and representing the spiritual connection we can all share. I can confirm that these works are succeeding in their goals.

I was impressed by the excellent technique used in creating these works. In my own little daubs, I basically can’t do feet and hands and then here are Katarzyna’s wonderful feet and hands, looking close to renaissance accuracy and technique. The compositions are very strong and make good use of the canvas space. There is a great intensity about these paintings.

I managed to grab the in demand Katarzyna for a chat and asked the usual starter questions about inspiration, technique and choice of materials, in this case really large canvases, oil and acrylic paints.

“The bigger spaces allow me more freedom of movement and to explore more emotion within the piece,” she said. “I’ve always been very attracted by strong colours, acknowledging that and working them into different styles and different pieces. I use both acrylic and oil paint, with their different qualities depending on the effect that I want. Early on I was very inspired by Salvador Dali.

“As time passes, I’ve responded to to events and questions around love and our connection to the universe. The collection is based around six paintings, which are intended to have a very soft chakra. Every painting is concerned with emotions after drama, creating a golden energy. This energy comes from so many different places. This is the source of my inspiration.”

Thanks to Katarzyna for this insight into her work and the ideas and process behind it.

If you would like to view this fine exhibition it can be seen at the Tea Amantes tea room and ggallery until 6th March 2023. Thanks once more to the tea room team in keeping the tea, juice and nibbles flowing through what was a very lovely evening.