Tamor Kriwaczek

When I first picked up a brush at the age of 14, I knew I was a painter. I have been passionate about painting ever since, an artform which human beings have used since prehistoric times to express how they feel about the world around them.

I started off painting portraits, and other figurative paintngs, but now I concentrate on landscapes where I can freely abstract what I see to better express the feelings I have for a place. My current series of paintings, called "Horizons", emphasises the notion of the horizon, the merging of land or sea into the sky. In this series every brushstroke becomes a horizon in itself, the juxtaposition of lines and colours creating the expression I am after.

After completing a foundation course at Camberwell College of Art in London, followed by studying life drawing at Central St. Martins, I contented myself with studying the paintings available to see in London in all the major galleries, especially the National Gallery.

At that time, conceptual art was in the ascendency with the YBA's coming to the fore. Painting had fallen out of fashion to the point where degree courses in fine art specialising in painting were hard to find. So rather than attending a second rate course in painting, something that I knew in my bones was the only thing I wanted to do, I made the decision to study on my own behalf, and the paintings I have produced ever since are the result of that study.