We were fortunate enough to feature Bozena Koj’s stunning work at the gallery in June 2019. The solo exhibition launch was a success, a large number of visitors had seen her work promoted across our social media platforms in the weeks leading up to the event and had been waiting patiently. Bozena’s work is stunning and picturesque. Her work exudes a sense of serenity and peace. The colours are bold and vibrant and yet blend together skillfully. The gallery had been transformed into a scene of landscapes and radiant forms. Bozena explains that she has been drawing ever since she can remember. In 2012 she signed up for a Drawing and Painting course at Morley College taught by Denzil Forrester where she developed and mastered new techniques and skills she incorporates in her art today. She studied under Denzil’s guidance for over three years and has been developing and constructing her artistic style since.

Her solo exhibition titled The Soul Melody entirely embodies and articulates her artistry. Each piece radiates from the center, creating depth and dimension – almost as if the paint on the canvas are the melodic echoes of the souls itself. She dedicated her first solo exhibition, The Soul Melody, to all the people present in her life. In her artistic statement she states ‘I believe everyone has a purpose in life and a melody of the soul which needs to be sung.’ Bozena’s purpose is painting and drawing, it’s her way of expressing herself and the abundant beauty and serenity she sees in the world. She adds that ‘more than anything I hope that my artwork communicates the plentiful joy and happiness of life and that it energizes the souls of those who see it, in the same way it replenished mine while I painted them.’

Her piece Free Your Sparkles is a colorful depiction of sunrise at sea with an open  illuminating floating jar, overflowing with flickers of sparkles. The painting explores darker hues of brown, blue, red and green with lighter and brighter tones of orange, yellow and white emanating from the center. The glimmers and sparks form the jar have spread across the canvas, illuminating the whole scene. The strokes used to create these ‘sparkles’ sit on top of the serene backdrop of the painting. The clusters are created by little dots using cotton buds creating marks with varied densities and varied intensity. The sparkles glimmer and shimmer on top of the moving waves also creating a sense of motion on the canvas. The clusters and flickers of white light on the piece further enhance and heighten this sense movement. The sunrise itself suggests a rebirth, a sense of new beginnings – a dawn of something new on the horizon. The representation of a sunrise in itself further encourages a dynamic sensibility to the painting, it is as if the piece is transforming and shifting into a new day.

As well as producing skillful masterpieces using traditional acrylic or oil paints Bozena also uses a range of mediums on canvas to create different textures. She skillfully creates different finishes on her pieces using different brush strokes, materials and techniques to emulate different landscapes, visuals and abstractions. Her painting The Soul Path has a captivating quality and texture to it. The painting depicts a vibrant and colorful path into the forest. In this painting Bozena has created an impressive texture that appears embossed. This texture emulates branches and limbs of a tree extending into the center of the canvas. Bozena explains that she creates this texture using tissue paper. Not only has she used this affect for the branches and the trees but also for the jagged bushes of flowers. Often with mixed media art the mix of different mediums can be too visually defiant, with a lack of coherence – Bozena’s work seamlessly and tactically blends these mediums to masterfully depict her intended vision. She uses distinctly different and vibrant colours in the painting to create shadows and depth. The different colours are used to reinforce the composition of the piece. The shadows and darker tones used at the base of the trees add even more depth and perspective to the path stretching out into the painting. It is as if this piece in itself invites us into Bozena’s world, if we were only to step in and follow the bright coloured road.