Altar Painting

Viktorija Skafaru's artistic experimentation moves from the search for structured but essential forms, which come to life from very different cultures, from fourteenth-century Tuscan painting to Orthodox icons up to the Japanese sumi-e tradition, to create her own original language, rich in meditative atmospheres suspended in time. The artist also paints outdoors in the places of her town, taking inspiration from ancient monuments and the vitality of the people she meets. For the canvases made in oil, the medium of choice, the artist does not use sketches as "creating a work is a process of discovery", where the line corresponds to the gesture, to the movement of the hand that expresses the energy of the moment. Often the figurative elements open onto an abstract background, so much so that the landscape is transformed into an internal, symbolic landscape. In the series of works "Montagne d'Incanto" only rocks appear, depicted with the essentiality of fourteenth-century paintings; the essence of the mountain is represented there, with a composition that abandons perspective to create forms "without space and time". The rocks seem suspended, in backgrounds of monochrome color where with an optical play the solids and voids mix, or are deconstructed, finally they seem to change consistency and acquire the flexibility of a fabric or the mobility of a fluid. The painted spaces therefore become metaphysical spaces, where the spectator can find in the silence of meditation the essence of a search, like the ascent to the top of a mountain, which however remains inaccessible and retains its mystery. In the Enchanted Gardens series, landscapes appear completely immersed in a fog that transforms them into abstract surfaces, composed of shades and chromatic variations of blue; Only one element emerges, the tree, which the artist chooses to represent from time to time with a different arboreal essence, an element rich in light, which recalls the preciousness of life, each different and unique. There is also a reference to the ancient traditions of the tree of life, together with the idea that the singular represents the whole in itself, "here and now". Viktorija Skafaru's art offers the viewer the opportunity to abandon the frenzy of everyday life "beyond the noise of everyday life", to enter the meditative silence of her works and take some steps in art as a path through one's own inner journey.