Basia Lukwinski was born in a small village in Poland. At the age of five, her family sailed to Canada. She moved from her childhood town of Grande Prairie, AB to Vancouver and the Sunshine Coast, BC. Nova Scotia has been her home for the last 15 years.
While raising her daughter and son, she was accepted to Kwantlen, Capilano and Red Deer colleges, where for 12 years she enrolled in painting, printmaking, ceramics, sculpture and bronze casting, taking only a class or two during each semester. She has exhibited in many groups shows throughout BC, Alberta, and Nova Scotia, including Swoon and Mary Black gallery. Her works are displayed in public and private collections throughout Canada and the USA.
Recently she has been experimenting with combinations of colour and abstraction properties, symbolic meanings, and the visual and emotional impact she experiences in her paintings. Completely in opposition to clay, she has been smoke firing, allowing the grayness of the smoke to imprint itself across her works. She has also been enjoying teaching painting, drawing and pottery to adults and children through HRM recreation. She loves learning and teaching always brings in new ideas and solidifies her knowledge.
Artist Statement
To begin painting, I scribble, splatter, sponge, spray, stamp, stencil and even brush on colours to create depth and thickness. Grasses, sticks, leaves and seashells are utilized in this initial process. I deepen the connection between layers of paint by repeating what has been concealed. Many times only a fragment remains from previous layers, like a symbolic expression of forgotten and hidden memories deep inside our mind, body and soul.
My inspiration comes from observing nature, the sky, people and what I consider interesting. In contemplation, I wait for a response; a familiarity where the flow of shapes and colours bring to me a thought, a feeling or an image. A memory like the sun brightly reflecting off the water so my eyes pain to look and yet I must glance again at the droplets dancing from one ripple to the next. A memory of a warm autumn breeze, swaying the crimson coloured leaves, and one flutters down into my open hand. I develop the painting alternating between hesitancy and fearlessness until at last I capture a fleeting moment of nature’s infinite beauty and my connection to it.
