prickly pear Painting

Ewa Kwasniewska was born in 1956 in Stargard near Szczecin (formerly Stettin) in the Northern region of Poland. She grew up in the industrial town Katowice (formerly Kattowitz), Southern Poland. As a child she played on coal dumps, but her favourite pastime was drawing and painting. Her parents and her two elder sisters supported her talent and this led the way to her joining a fine arts school for highly gifted children. Consequently, in 1978 she was chosen from among 600 budding young students to study at the Department Katowice of the Academy of Fine Arts Cracow. In the same year she married a fellow student. In 1981 she took refuge in Western Germany, escaping the civil war between the freedom movement, Solidarność, and the communist government of Poland. She was immediately given German citizenship, and received a grant for learning German. In this dramatic period of life her son Ryszard was born. It is useful in Germany to have an academic title. For this reason, she contacted various academies, but she always received the answer that she was indeed the "finished product" and required no further studies. In order to achieve her aim, however, she studied Communication Design at the University of Essen / Germany, graduating with the degree (diploma) Master of Design. Since then, she has been living and working in Essen as a freelance painter. Additionally, she has founded a private school for painting. In order to overcome the trials and tribulations that have featured in her life, Ewa´s magic elixir has been and still today is - drawing and painting.