Since the launch of my website my work has been shared with more and more people, which is just wonderful and truly humbling. But one question I keep getting asked is WHY do I paint, and WHY do I paint the sea....
The short answer is because I love the sea. It is my safe place, it feeds my soul and it is almost instinctual to paint what I see and love, interpreted through my eyes.
The deeper, longer answer I have held back for many years. I am a fairly sociable person usually, I love to laugh and join in, but I don't like being in the spotlight. That is where I begin to feel uncomfortable. But as an Artist we don't have a choice but to promote ourselves as well as our art. I say this because art itself is emotive, there needs to be a connection with it, and with the artist that creates it. So here I am.
The real reason I paint is because painting is like therapy for me. I am most at peace when I am creating. And I need this feeling. I need it because for most of my life I have not felt peace. I have fought hard and struggled through to this stage in my life.
From troubles in my childhood, to a toxic marriage, it has taken me a long time to find calm, stability and freedom. The sea has always been my safe haven. It moves me, it feeds me and it grounds me. It is ever changing, moody, serene or dramatic, but it is constant, natural.
I lived in London for most of my life, yet i found myself escaping whenever I could. I realised that while London has amazing opportunities and sites, it was full of concrete, people and noise. There was no respite. It never stopped. I began to become acutely aware of how unnatural it was to live amongst so much concrete. To see grass I would have to take a bus to a park. Trees were sparce and the air was thick with smog. We saved each month to go on holiday to escape the place- so why was I still living there?
I yearned to feel the sand between my toes, to breathe in fresh air, to listen to the sounds of crashing waves...
When my daughter was born I was in the process of a divorce, and my work took up a lot of my time. I was missing out on my baby girl, but also my life. I worked, slept and worked again. So a few years ago I made the decision to move to where I kept escaping to. The sea. I would offer my daughter a more free childhood where she could and does play on the beach, roll down grassy hills and skip stones across the sea. It sounds idyllic- because it really is.
I am now in a place where I can truly say that I feel good. I feel calm. I feel free. And these are the feelings that I want to share. Not all of us can get up and move house. But we can take a piece of the sea home with us. We can build our own safe havens in our homes. And my art is there to help make that happen.
Magda
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