Chrysanthemum, Painting, Oil on Canvas, 2020

Attila Vencel  

Artist Statement:

In my contemporary work, landscape, nature and flower motifs prevail. I depict them somewhere between realistic and impressionist paintings. I paint these primarily on canvas with oil paints.

In my abstract work, I like to experiment with geometry, structure, colored surfaces, but also with natural subjects. I like to blend various techniques,
using a combination of oil with acrylic. I start painting with an underpainting. Darker areas and shadows are thinly layered. Thicker layers are then applied to provide vivid colors.

I like vivid colors, pastel tones. In this respect, I admire Van Gogh's color scheme. For the most part, I try to work "alla prima" as I enjoy the spontaneity and challenge of blending on the canvas. However, finishing works varies and can take several days or weeks.

I work with brushes, fingers, cloth, and spatula, and, I will often change the technique and the means of expression, adjusting to the chosen theme.

Nature offers a wealth of inspiring scenery. I'm trying to capture the game of light and shadow, fleeting moments and moods. An important aspect of my work is the effort to give my work a little bit of my own poetry and lyricism.

My passion for the countryside and nature was greatly shaped my close relationship with my grandfather. He was a passionate fisherman, who often took me with him to wander through nature, and passed on a love of forests, meadows, hillsides, rivers, and everything alive.
I owe my first contact with fine art to my father, who liked to draw and was very creative and skilled in woodworking, carving, and wood burning techniques. An important role was also played by the work of my cousin Zoltán, who created paintings, mosaics from various wooden veneers.

The crucial moment of my adolescence was the nascent velvet revolution, which, as a student, I was a part of, and, brought new hope to my life.

The period after the "Velvet Revolution" was full of expectations, excitement, and confusion. It was North Moravia in Ostrava - where I moved right after my national service - that my path to independence began, I found myself in a new place, without family support or friends. It was a very difficult time for me as I was to be confronted, tested and disappointed. However, I was in the center of a whirlwind of exuberant life that would lead me to my future.

A new episode of my life began when I became a co-owner of Sherlock's Pub on Stodolni Street. I had the opportunity to look deeper into the world of artists. Meet many interesting and inspiring people. It significantly influenced my maturation as a man and also as an artist. It shaped my perspective, "focus" on the meaning of life and my next direction.

At the same time, a new spiritual path was opened to me. I was filled with belief in a better future and the ability to transform the spirit, which goes hand in hand with nature, space and human creativity. At this time I met my wife Alice, who became my life and spiritual partner and my great support.
?Suddenly I felt the need to rethink priorities, introduce harmony and set a new order. I definitely wanted a change. And the change was crucial. Instead of endless nightlife, live in the day, creatively and efficiently. The process of slow transformation, education, work, and creative activity has begun. At the same time, I felt the need to express myself, to create, to develop. It was a return to the fine arts. To what was in the beginning.
Painting and color are a tool, that gives me an alternative, a language of self-expression and interaction with the outside world. I believe the world needs this form of communication as a way of finding inner balance and positive evolution. In my work, I point out the beauty of nature and highlight its fragility and importance for our human lives. A person who devastates and disrupts, with an unnatural, supreme attitude and manner of behavior, becomes a parasitic being. The disturbed symbiosis, then, is necessarily reflected in ourselves, in our lives and in human relationships. An important mission, for each of us, should be to try to find balance again.

Education:

As a self taught artist, Attila Vencel's inspiration is based on his love for landscapes and nature, which he has been closely associated with since his youth. He sensitively perceives its delicate balance, which he tries to find and share in his life, at work, in relation to people and the environment. It feels like a never-ending process, a journey of life and an effort to find a higher and higher level of harmony.

His attitude to painting and painting technique was greatly influenced by Russian painter Igor Sakharov. After many years of admiration, in 2017, Atilla was fortunate to meet one of his role models while in Moscow. They subsequently spent several days painting together in the beautiful setting, of Pereslavl-Zalessky, a town on the shores of Lake Pleschev.

Exhibitions:

April 2018 - Solo Exhibition - Abstract / Landscape - Ostravanka Coffee Shop - Ostrava
5.10 - 5.11. 2018 - Solo Exhibition - PROLÍNÁNÍ - Abstract / Landscape - café MARY?KA - DOV. - Ostrava
21.8.2018 - Live TV broadcast - ?T2, Good Morning guest

Professional/Teaching Experience:

Attila Vencel also helps novice artists to awaken their own natural talents as lecturer and mentor, in his free time, at his studio or plein air.
 

Artistic Influences:

He found great inspiration in the works of Impressionists of the 19th century, such as Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Edgar Degas. Representatives of the so-called "California Impressionism" were, for example, William Keith, Benjamin Chambers Brown, Selden Connor Gile.
Czech painters Antonín Slaví?ek, Václav Radimský, František Kaván, Julius Ma?ák and Augustin Mervart.
He also draws on works by Russian painters such as Korovin, Polen, Ayvazovsky, Levitan, Repin and Shishkin.