Matter of the Universe - penetration 8 Painting

Bernadetta Skwarczyńska could best be described as a spiritual painter, insightful, profound and powerful her work often takes inspiration from the natural world as well as an energetic spiritual world of her imagining. Starting her career as a landscape and portrait artist, Bernadetta eventually developed a very colourful, vibrant and dynamic style for which she is now globally recognized. Although Bernadetta has been painting in oil on canvas for over 20 years, she is still finding new, exciting ways to work with colour. Her subjects range from far away celestial galaxies, to mythical creatures and human souls. Bernadetta is also very much inspired by the human body, specifically the male form, always working with live models, she endeavors to look past the obvious, concentrating on the energies around the person and is striving to reflect the mind, soul and essence of the subject. As well as looking at the human body as an organic outer form Bernadetta has an avid fascination with the unseen microcosm of an internal cell in the human body, allowing her to transcend the human body. The artist comments; “Whether the painting is of a human being or a galaxy this is all the same energy, all the same matter, and often we forget this!” Bernadetta was born in Poland, where she worked as a Fashion Designer for Viva Poland, worked in collaboration with Designer Piotr Ciepa and also as worked for many years a Catwalk Model. Her main career though was in journalism, already having experience and a keen interest in painting and working as a Graphic Designer, it was a natural step for her to develop into a career specializing in art journalism. Whilst still living and working in Poland Bernadetta hosted two major, critically acclaimed exhibitions of her works gaining both notoriety and exposure. She later started to develop an interest in the positive effects that arts and more specifically art therapy could have on the human mind, thus she started to work in the psychiatric ward of a hospital. Bernadetta helped patients to communicate and articulate their feelings in various artistic outcomes to overcome mental illness, a cause that is still very dear to her heart! Bernadetta explains “The Occupational art therapy that I lead, let me look at the human mind free from restrictions. It was a fascinating experience. This experience has taught me that only the unfettered mind is able to show the true emotions.