Featuring guest artist, hania kaczanowska.
Hania or Anne Kaczanowski, is a Canadian artist from Alberta. I met Anne online in last year’s Paint your Heart and Soul class with Olga Furman.
Anne’s beautiful paintings are filled with emotions and colour and I was attracted to her soulful work. I think we also share a wicked sense of humour and this is another reason that, even though we have never met in person, Anne and I are soul sisters.
I promote the work of other artists on my Facebook artist page, (if we don't help each other, who will?) and I am also sharing the work of the many talented artists I have met online on my blog. Anne is my fifth guest artist to tell her story this year.
Please contact me if you are interested in being featured as a guest artist.
Each step up the ladder reveals new possibilities…
Painting has opened a new chapter in my life the last two years.
I have always been creative and tried many things from sketching, painting, calligraphy, sewing, flower arrangements, and too many other creative crafts to mention.
I’m a hairstylist and in my suburbia, conservative world, sometimes there isn’t enough crazy creativity for me. In times when I felt empty like this, I always fell back on a talent I had inside of me. For example, I might have painted a pretty dress or tried sketching a face.
Rekindling a dormant skill
Two years ago I started painting lots of dresses and realized that I had wasted so many years letting a skill lie dormant.
Many people wish they had a skill or hidden passion and I was ignoring the one thing that had always been within me.
One day I saw an art course online with “Olga Furman Paint Your Heart and Soul 2017”. It screamed at me to join. I needed a commitment to get serious and this course offered weekly lessons. I enrolled and never missed a week during the entire year.
Benefits of online art community
Being part of an art community online where you share your weekly projects was very motivating for me. Seeing the creativity of others inspired me. We all start with nothing and where you take it depends on you.
So when I see what others are capable of achieving it makes me want to try harder. I started working with acrylics and would like to get to know this medium as well as I can. I find charcoal quite exciting to work with as well.
Creative inspiration from dreams
I had a dream one night that Olga Furman, our online teacher, was teaching me how to paint a pink cloche hat. In my dream she was wearing a ballerina outfit. The pinks in the cloche were so beautiful and the vision was so exciting. I decided to paint it as I saw it in the dream and take the lesson in blending that she gave me.
Well, it worked and this is one of my favourite fun story paintings.
I like to paint faces because I love the beauty of women and everything that accentuates that. I want to be better at faces. That is ultimately my goal.
I like to paint feelings from dreams or moments too beautiful to let go. I love to paint in the moment hoping to capture something that I can look back on and remember how great it felt when I finally got it.
So sometimes my subjects will vary. I write a lot of poetry honouring the past of my parent’s survival of war and sometimes I have to paint for them.
For instance, I painted a girl throwing poppies in the wind for Remembrance Day, and I wanted her dead grandmother depicted as a ghost child standing beside her.
In reality the ghost child would have had a father who was taken prisoner in the army and the little girl and her mother were deported to Siberia.
When I finished painting the ghost child...somehow in the texture of the paint behind her... a soldier appeared with a blue army cap. It was not in my plan. He just appeared with his blue cap. It was as if her soldier father, who had been murdered, was saying, “I was always here...don’t forget me! So I had to pull him out. That was an amazing experience for me.
This is what art does ...it touches your soul, and if you are open to the wonders of your spirit, many magical things can appear.
Art captures a story
All of my art pieces have a story. When I show people my art it’s never about the paint...I have to tell them the story. So I am drawn into many different arenas just trying to improve my story on canvas.
Off canvas challenge
I have a big yard with lots of flowers and this summer I decided to try some lawn art on a very big piece of fence that I had just painted a cedar colour. It was screaming for some life.
I had no idea what I was doing and my boards were old and rough. I bought Dollar store outdoor patio paints and for colours I couldn’t find, I just used ordinary cheap bottles of craft acrylic paints. After I finished the painting, I sealed it with a clear outdoor fence varnish.
It was challenging: the boards were very rough, and I was painting free hand because I forgot to buy chalk to outline my sketch.
So, lesson learned as with every painting. If I were to do this again I would chalk sketch first. A Buddha might be coming to the other side of that fence.
At the end of the day, whether it’s a canvas, a sketchpad, or a fence...something of your spirit gets expressed when you get in touch with that deeper part of yourself.
I don’t have the time to do as much as I’d like because I still work. I’m not fully confident yet with my own art. I’m still trying to define a style that I can say is comfortably mine, so it’s a slow process. Right now my art is just for me.
Ultimate goal: reaching the top of the ladder
What motivates me the most in art is when I look at someone’s art achievement and say to myself, “ Wow! Wow!” That would be the ultimate goal, but to get even on the step ladder to Wow feels pretty good. So I keep trying.
The creative process of each art piece is fulfilling even if the end isn’t a masterpiece. We all strive for perfection and are never fully satisfied with what we do, but we need to move on. Each piece you attempt just takes you one step up the ladder.
You know... the ladder to Wow!
Live your art no matter where it takes you.
“Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.” ~Salvador Dali
“Art is never finished, only abandoned.” ~Leonardo da Vinci
You can follow or like Anne’s work on Facebook here:
Please leave a comment in the Leave a Reply box below for Anne.
WOW! Well I had to start with that Anne, I think you are already on top of that ladder, your paintings are beautiful, not for one minute should you doubt yourself. Thank you for sharing your work on Louise’s blog. 👏👏👏❤️
Sally, I told her exactly the same thing. Her paintings are so powerful, especially the one with the ghost image appearing in the background. I really love the one I used as a header. There is so much detail and colour! Thanks Sally for leaving a comment for Anne.
Anne’s reply to your comment: “Thanks Sally…your WOW made my Sunday…nice start to the day.”