Daniel Pielucha " Shepherd"
oil/canvas 80 x 100 cm.
Daniel Pielucha
Daniel Pielucha was born in 1959 in Wieluń. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow, receiving his diploma from the Department of Graphics in Katowice in 1985. In 2018 he was honored by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland with the badge "Meritorious for Polish Culture". The artist's works have been presented at many individual and group exhibitions at home and abroad. The type of easel painting practiced by Daniel Pielucha is called "Polish Surrealism." The artist often refers to the tradition of Polish symbolism of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. His paintings are devoid of all attributes of modernity and depict a world in which fantastic elements and the lyrical aura of the Polish countryside intermingle in a metaphysical reflection of reality. Weaving together biblical, mythological and folk themes, the artist seeks the distinctiveness and originality of native culture and, with respect for the workshop and history of Polish painting, emphasizes its unique character. The surrealist metaphor omnipresent in Daniel Pielucha's paintings is inspired by the transient landscape of the Polish countryside and its folklore. The overriding value for the artist is the bond with tradition, the land and native sites. Folklore, beliefs and customs are the leitmotif of the painting visions, in which the author presents his depiction of the surrounding space and human existence. He skillfully creates magical landscapes that captivate with their airiness and subtlety of shapes, both real and imaginary. The artist's fascination with the history and tradition of the Polish landed gentry means that he also draws inspiration for his paintings from hunting themes, showing above all the delightful harmony of nature. Close contact with nature makes him masterfully capture exceptional moments in the life of animals, capturing their uniqueness and beauty. A frequent, nostalgic subject of the artist's works is a flock of partridges, once constituting the beauty of the native winter landscape. Using the symbolism of the natural world, like Lesmian, he reveals the soul of nature, its fairy-tale beauty and mysticism. Through the individual filter of perception, he is able to extract the intangible from the surrounding matter. The artist's work is also a peculiar form of opposition to the industrial-consumption ideology, which does not include in its framework a reverence for nature, and thus respect for the human being, who is closely related to it[.
