“Nature creates the most beautiful compositions, you just have to notice them”

Luiza Poreda, 10 November 2020

Joanna Szumska is a painter who permanently cooperates with the Auction House and the Online Art in House Gallery. The artist was born in Otwock in 1965. She graduated from the State Secondary School of Fine Arts in Warsaw, worked in the design studio of the Baj Theater in Warsaw. She also dealt with graphic design and interior design. However, painting has always been the most natural way of expression for her.

Joanna Szumska believes that the most beautiful abstractions and the most fantastic compositions are created by nature, and every element of it is perfection.

– In my eyes, nature itself creates the most beautiful compositions, you just have to notice them. Every little shell on the right scale becomes a wonderful abstraction. The shapes of the leaves, the colors of the flowers are an endless source of inspiration, regardless of whether it is an image of reality or an abstract composition. I am moved by the beauty of plant forms and their colors. I want to surround myself with them, I like to be with them, I also like to share them with my audience – she says.

As he continues, although he loves our native change of seasons, he likes the sun shining in his paintings. Summer is associated with freedom, joy, love and happiness, like a summer dress, which is the sensual essence of these emotions. Based on these emotions, the painter created a series of paintings called “Summer Dress”, whose main characters are women. Each of these pictures is a story.

Femininity in a summer dress

For Joanna Szumska, women are close to nature. They are goddesses and shamans, sorceresses and witches. The artist admires their strength and gentleness, the ability to make great effort and the care with which women treat the world. Nature is she – Mother Nature.

– I believe that female instincts are always associated with creating something good, it is a constant positive creation. We, women, generally create a home, a safe haven. We act under the influence of right emotions. For me, these are the most important things in the world. Not the instincts for gaining, competition, or some desired power and authority. The most important thing is close to the earth, close to nature, its cycles and rebirth, living together without aggression and race. Gentleness, tenderness and sensitivity are most needed today in the world and our planet. And these emotions for women come naturally. At the same time, as women, we have the capacity for great sacrifices and the strength to protect life. I think about such women by wrapping them in colorful silk or fabulous plant forms – says Joanna Szumska.

“I miss a desert island”

As Joanna Szumska tells us, she used to travel a lot and admits that she felt best on a deserted island, among wild nature.

– I love our seasons, each of them brings different impressions and it is beautiful. Cities are fascinating and provide a lot of excitement with their galleries and museums. However, I miss the desert island and I remember it in my paintings. This is an island in the Indian Ocean with white sand and huge crabs that don’t run away from humans because they haven’t learned it yet. With curious lizards coming out of the shade. It was there that I swam with the huge turtle and to this day I feel moved when I remember this meeting. I fed the fish by hand! I could stay there for a long time, I don’t know if I would ever get bored of communing with such virgin nature – says the painter.

Joanna Szumska thinks that she learned the most from the backpacking trip to India and Nepal – and this is also history related to art.

– When looking for fabrics for the background for my paintings, I bought a coupon of a wonderfully red fabric painted with ornaments with small colored dots. I had no idea why he fascinated me so much. It was only in Nepal that I realized that this is a typical traditional pattern that women wear. I still have it today and try to keep it in sight. In Nepal I experienced so many good emotions that for a long time, if something was not successful in my life, I was looking for plane tickets to Kathmandu. I was lucky enough to see this city before the terrible earthquake, and the people there taught me what peace and trust are. There, I understood how absurd the problems of the Western world can be. India, on the other hand, taught me perseverance. There I found out how much I can bear and that it is not easy to break me. Whoever traveled in this beautiful country by the cheapest train knows what I’m talking about – the artist tells us and thinks that every journey teaches something, you just have to want to learn this lesson from life.

Create as a basic need

As Joanna Szumska says, creating is a natural state and a basic need for her. She is happy that I can finally devote myself to it, because she could not always do it. She is inspired by a beautiful world, sometimes a poem, song, memory. She’s definitely looking for a good, positive experience, against all odds.

– Sometimes a gesture or a look is enough. There is much evil and cruelty in the world. You must seek peace within yourself to oppose it. I do it by painting – says Szumska.

Visit the gallery of Joanna Szumska’s hand-painted paintings at Art in House.