High-Pressure Area

High-Pressure Area

Colour is the main protagonist of Sebastain Skoczylas’s compositions. The artist goes for bold combinations, using all its attributes (temperature, saturation and, less often, value). Despite this, however, his paintings are subtle and serene – lacking contrasting forms, usually almost homogenous in value and minimalistic in terms of composition.

Rectangular stripes, dots, circles and other shapes are located in accordance with a hidden geometry of format, i.e. following the edge of the painting (which has been highlighted with a colourful frame) or diagonally. I consider it the author’s recipe for configurations which are simple, static and expose the subtleties of colour.

A few words on the aforementioned frame: I deduce the history of the painting mostly from its edges. This is where the quality and skill of the artist becomes most visible – he seems to be creating his works ‘with no apparent plan’ and changes his conception in the progress of painting. Here we may see successive layers of thick paint – most often put with a palette-knife without the use of glaze technique – which create a frame for the composition. The earlier layers of paint can be seen through the latest ones, creating a glimmering effect, the hue and brightness flickering.
What fascinates me, above all, are the geometricised objects in distinctive colours that emerge from the thick background, penetrating it in their drive to ‘break free’ to the surface.