The Elements Oil on Canvas 14” x 17.5”
In his paintings, Bekir Smolski creates what he calls “unreal landscapes.” Working in oils and acrylics on canvas, the artist employs a subtle, muted color palette in images that often blanket the scenes they depict with a glowing, semitransparent haze. This adds a new dimension, taking the image beyond its status as a traditional flat surface and encouraging the viewer to move past that initial barrier, forming a complex, almost physical relationship with the painting. “I want to make the audience go, swim or fly in the space of surreal landscape as far their imagination allows,” he says. This desire to bring his viewers into the world of his paintings gives them a unique tone, at once active and dreamily contemplative.
Having studied such methods of art making as mosaics, frescoes and stained glass at the Belrusian Academy of Art, Smolski has made himself an expert in how the depiction of light can enhance an image. The movement of light through his images is a central source of their appeal. Its transitions are not extreme or dramatic. Rather, they serve to illuminate and clarify the images he presents. Each scene emerges from the light that surrounds it, resulting in images that slowly reveal their meaning and leave a lasting impression.
www.bekir.org
www.Agora-Gallery.com/ArtistPage/Bekir_Smolski.aspx