MARKÉTA LOMAN VOGELOVÁ, CZECH REPUBLIC

In Her Own Words
All my life I’ve known that I wanted to be an artist.
I was born in Prague, a very cultural city. I used to see exhibitions frequently since very young, first with my mother and then alone. Fascinated by paintings, I dreamed of making my own. Some years later, I would read biographies of artists and imagined that someone would write a book about my life and my art.
I started with my first drawings when I was able to hold a pencil. Now I envy how I drew as a child, with so much freedom that now I have to search for with effort.
My mother, as an illustrator, supported my sister and me in creating, and enrolled us in art workshops. When I decided to go to high school focused on plastic art, she supported me.
When I graduated, I wanted to continue studying art. As things happen in our lives, a chance inspired me to choose textile art which I began to study in 2000 at the Academy of Architecture, Art and Design in Prague. I combined it with painting and illustration studies.

I had the opportunity to try different techniques of textile, graphic and painting art. The future has shown me that my decision was a good one. Not only did I learn a new art medium to experiment with, I can also teach this beautiful technique and meet wonderful people who attend my classes. This makes me feel very grateful.

I work with different art techniques.
I am a painter, illustrator, printmaker and textile artist. Each of these techniques gives me different possibilities to express my ideas or my feelings. I love them all and I like to experience new ways of creation.
When I was young, I always liked to keep a notebook in my pocket and draw people and scenes from life on the subway, in the cafeteria, etc. Now I have not done it for a long time because of the change in lifestyle, but I think it was a good way to practice, and it would be a good idea to return to it.

When I paint, it is usually something from reality: a portrait, a landscape, or an inspiration from nature that I turn into an abstract painting. I prefer to work with a living or outdoor model, because I like the connection with the painted object.
At that moment, when I paint, I become very concentrated and absolutely present. Suddenly I see things that I had not noticed before, like the details, the play of light and shadow, the tones of colors. It’s like my brain changed a channel.
But it is not always possible to work like this, so I also use photography for my work.
I mainly paint with watercolor, acrylic and oil. When I am painting I am thinking of how to mix the tones of the colors that I am observing and about the composition and the forms. I am quite focused on what I do in such a way that there is no room in my head for another thought.
When I work on my prints, I first think about the subject and making the sketches. I always leave the design wide open so that it can mature during the engraving process. I let the linoleum speak to me.
My first pictorial project in Mérida that I presented as my first exhibition at Galería La Eskalera was with the theme of Water.
One part was the watercolors made in the open air illustrating different Yucatecan cenotes and another part of the collection was oil paintings made in my studio using photos of water and its reflections. Before, I liked to work with tempera, but here it is difficult to get and in this climate dries in the tubes very quickly.

Linocut Printmaker Artist

I use different media and techniques for illustration, but in the last 4 years I fell in love with linocut. It all started with an illustration contest of the myths and legends of the North American tribe of the Shoshones.
For the theme, looking for my own style, I was inspired by the petroglyphs of the North American natives. At first I worked with brush drawings with India ink and tempera paint in combination with dry pastel. This collection was presented at MEL (Merida English Library) and at Galería Tapanco. Already during work I felt that this style needed something rougher to allow me to play with textures.
It was only a matter of time to find the space where I could print my engravings… and I started my new era of linocuts. Little by little I stopped working with the theme of the Shoshones and now new themes inspire me.

Links about artist and artwork Diario de Yucatan or cultural magazine