Awakening Painting

jerneja.smolnikar2@gmail.com wwww.jernejasmolnikar.com I am Jerneja Smolnikar, born in Slovenj Gradec, Slovenia in 1984. After finishing elementary school, I enrolled in the Velenje Gymnasium. I continued my education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana under the mentorship of Bojan Gorenec, Franc Novinac and Sergej Kapus. During my studies, I received a scholarship for talented people from the foundation of the academic painter Karel Peček. In 2009, I graduated with honors and became an Academic Painter. Now I continue my painting career independently, creating at home in Mislinja. The very titles of the cycles speak eloquently about the distinctly feminine, gentler gender, which the painter explores not only in terms of motifs, but also in technical testing and upgrades it according to the response of different materials. The common denominator of the mentioned cycles is mixed technique, a warm color palette and recognizable ornamentation, which comes from the webs of Slovenian lace. mosaic wings on which a collage of multi-layered addition and interweaving of different materials, from wood to buttons and rope, is arranged. Gradually, actual interlaced threads are introduced into the painted interlacing, which reflect the painter's love for sewing, and over the years, her ornament is left only to contour outlines and follows the story of the central motif. For example, as a perforated veil that discreetly conceals parts of the female body, which the author develops from study figurals, especially nudes, to the more recent cycle Romance of the Female Body. Although the painter's desire is primarily to paint after a living model, for practical reasons she also makes use of the modern possibilities of using the model in photography, which she incorporates into the canvas and gives it her own artistic language. The cycle thus intertwines the collage technique of various materials, from lace and threads to pieces of fabric that also leave structural traces, and is reflected in new technical interventions in the cycle Web images, where it is literally an interweaving of motif and technical experiences of past years and their upgrading in the reflection of newly woven images.