The work of a hugely talented artist will feature in a new exhibition here at the Heaton Cooper Studio archive gallery.
Stefan Orlowski is considered to be one of the most talented exponents of classical meets contemporary painting at work in the UK today. He will bring to his show in Grasmere a series of images under the label “Presence” which will open on September 12.
Stefan’s practice is rooted in the tradition of British and European figurative painting. Working from in situ observation and executed predominantly in oils and watercolour, the works are a result of many hours spent working on mountain tops and lowland valleys or in the studio with familiar sitters.
“My cast of characters relate in some way to the landscape around them, as referenced by backdrops, window glimpses or some trace of its presence,” he says. “I attempt to create a link between the interior worlds we inhabit and our relationship with the land. When we move outside and toward the mountains we also take a journey inwards into ourselves. Upon return, the experience grows in us.”
In Girl from the North Country, a woman sits by a window, deliberately ignoring the view, which is clearly of a Lakeland cottage and a mountain. The Old Boys is a stark interior featuring two men, each lost in his own thoughts. The painting demands close inspection, the detail of the wooden floor, the curved brickwork over the fireplace, the bare feet, fingernails, a tattooed arm.
By contrast, there are no figures in The Harried Yard, a familiar but empty farmyard where the only sign of life is smoke curling from the chimney.
Says Stefan: “The figurative paintings are often introspective, psychologically tense and carry an undertow of pathos. Intensity of mark making, emotional resonance and a dialectic between subjective beauty and corporal honesty typify my aesthetic.
“The use of traditional materials, such as lead white and its layered application root the work in a long tradition of painting, but I hope to bring these methods into a contemporary and personal visual language.”
Born in Ulverston in 1985, Stefan initially studied for his BA in Fine Art at the University of Aberystwyth before attaining his Masters in Fine Art at the highly regarded Wimbledon College of Art in 2012. It was just after graduation from Aberystwyth, in 2008, that Stefan, won the Young Artist Award at the prestigious national Lynn Painter Stainers prize.
With numerous exhibitions to his name, including showings in Switzerland and London (regularly at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Mall Galleries) and throughout the UK, Stefan continues to build a national reputation
He says: “Ultimately it is drama that I seek and it is drama that I find in the landscapes I love to paint. The work on paper moves between the mountains of Snowdonia to locations across the Lake District. They range from impulsive, weather beaten responses on the side of a mountain to coastal rock formations and lowland valley scenes.
“I attempt to carry drama through use of varied mark making, contrasting open spaces with the intensely observed, chiaroscuro, accident and abstraction. Often the elements play a role in the outcome of work, with pigment and materials being blown across the surface. I return to locations repeatedly to complete the paintings and the resulting work is a palimpsest of my experience.”
The painter Julian Cooper who is curating this exhibition said: “We are delighted to welcome Stefan, with new paintings displaying his distinctive sharp-eyed melancholy, back to Grasmere. His previous exhibition here, Land Lives, back in 2017, was widely appreciated, and we know our visitors will enjoy this show as much.”
The exhibition will run from 12th September until 3rd November 2024.