Sparks of light in times of the pandemic
My first solo exhibition took place from June 15 to July 1, 2020 in the Ante Kovačić city library in Zaprešić, a small town in Croatia where I still live today. I named the exhibition “Sparks of light in times of the pandemic”, mainly because I have painted my paintings during the lockdown in March 2020 as a result of the first wave of the Covid 19 pandemic.
At times when feelings of helplessness and fear arose among people, I gave myself to the creative process of expressing the beauty and love that I experience around me, but also within myself. For me it was a very interesting and rich experience. Since I haven’t painted in recent years, the pandemic and the forced isolation within my own four walls finally gave me the opportunity to devote myself to my hobby and my creative side. With this I discovered my SPARKS of LIGHT, which filled me from within. And after I have transferred this emotion to the canvases, my paintings now also bring these feelings of light and hope into my customers’ homes.
I have been painting and drawing since I was a child and I already won prizes for my art works in various competitions during school time. My early works have also been exhibited several times at collective exhibitions in Germany where I lived until 2005. But since then I have painted very rarely and most often by order or desire of my loved ones, so I never collected enough works to participate in any exhibitions again.
That changed during the lockdown isolation in spring 2020 when I finally had the time to paint new paintings almost every day, mostly using the oil-on-canvas technique, but sometimes also using mixed-media techniques. After each completion of my work, I published it on Facebook, whereupon I received a lot of positive comments. Soon afterwards the first inquiries to buy my paintings came. Among them were people who asked me almost every day when the exhibition of my works would take place. In view of the fact that I had painted over 50 paintings in a short period of time, I was quickly convinced to actually organize a solo exhibition, which I did shortly afterwards. About 30 of my art works were on display at this exhibition, which I had previously framed so that they could be better expressed. Since I wanted to show the full range of my motifs and techniques, several motifs were represented among the exhibited works: people and faces, forests and parks, city scenes, landscapes, sea and animals.
For me, my first solo exhibition was a very emotional experience. Not only because my closest friends and family members came to the opening, but also because of my friend Katarina Bolfek, who enriched the opening for us with the sound of her beautiful voice. I was especially happy that she sang my favorite songs and played the guitar, and finally rounded off everything with a brief look back at me as a person with words that moved me to tears.
It was kind of special to share my creative works with the public after so many hours of painting in the quiet of my home. I would be very happy if there were more such opportunities in the future.