Spring Painting

Gregor Pratneker (b. 1973) is a Slovenian painter who has been working primarily in oil on canvas since the 1990s, a medium to which he remains deeply committed. He lives and works in Maribor, Slovenia. Pratneker holds the status of an independent professional artist in the field of culture and is an active member of the DLUM Artists’ Association. He earned his BA in Fine Arts in 2006 from the Faculty of Education in Maribor, graduating with the thesis Painterly Views of Maribor (supervised by Dr. Ciglenečki and Dr. Krašna). From 2007 to 2012, he pursued postgraduate studies at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana, where he completed his MFA in 2012 with the thesis Abstraction and Deformation of Form in My Painting (supervised by Dr. Muhovič and Dr. Lenardič). Following his studies, Pratneker’s artistic focus has centered primarily on landscape painting, especially forest motifs, which he approaches both en plein air and in the studio. He has been dedicated to landscape painting for over fifteen years, developing a distinctive painterly language characterized by abstraction, atmosphere, and expressive deformation of form. In 2013, he received the First Prize at the May Salon, awarded by the Association of Slovenian Fine Artists (ZDSLU). A year later, his painting Winter Morning—previously awarded First Prize by ZDSLU—was also recognized by the jury of the Autumn Salon in Paris, marking the beginning of his ongoing presence on the Parisian art scene. Since then, he has regularly exhibited at all three major Paris salons: the Autumn Salon, the Salon of Fine Arts, and the Salon of French Artists. In December 2019, he was awarded the Eugène Boudin Painting Prize at the Salon of Fine Arts at the Louvre for his work Spring in the Mountains, an honor named after the renowned French landscape painter. In February 2020, he received a Mention Award at the Salon of French Artists held at the Grand Palais, again for a landscape painting. Pratneker exhibits regularly in solo exhibitions throughout Slovenia and occasionally abroad. In 2022, an extensive monograph dedicated primarily to his landscape works was published (Stibilj Šajn, Pratneker). In April 2024, he was awarded the Glazer Charter, presented by the City Municipality of Maribor, in recognition of his significant cultural achievements—particularly his accomplished landscape painting and long-standing participation in prestigious French salons.