About

- Karina Brzostowski - b. ~1980

I was born in Poland and raised in France where I studied Art at University. For many years I was based in the U.K. before relocating to Dubai.

My subject matter and emotions are driving my choices for my preferred medium of painting, ranging from acrylics, charcoal and ink to watercolours. My work tends to capture moments in time, places, feelings or memories. It reflects the relationship I have with myself, my interconnection with others and my surrounding environments. A theme central to my work is the idea of perception which is very personal to my personality, as perception is heavily influenced by our expectations, experiences and emotions.

How I feel affects the way I see the world and as a consequence the subject and the technique used for my paintings.

For instance, when creating my Secret Garden's series I used bright and unusual colours. This was a way to force the viewer to look better and rediscover places differently. It's a call to open up, become more aware of our environment. How do we interpret our surroundings? Especially in a lockdown situation, I wanted to make what is around us more visible, more blissful, to maintain and cultivate a positivity and hopefulness for the future. Sit back and smell the roses. Stop worrying and take one day at a time. Reflect the connection of oneself with their surroundings. Nature is often taken for granted and when life becomes hectic we stop seeing it and being positively affected by it.

Here is a time where we can observe, enjoy simple things, rest and reflect. Furthermore, the idea of secret gardens is a connection to our dreams, our creativity and to the hidden sides of our psyche. It's the place of our inhibitions and secrets, a personal landscape that it's inside all of us. This lockdown is also a good time to look inside and get closer to our inner selves. Finally, this painting can be seen as an hymn to my own femininity as a female painter.

Instagram Feed