Artist: Therese Urbanska

Artist’s Statement

Therese Urbanska graduated from Coleg Menai in 2004 - one of the first graduates on the new Fine Arts degree course held there in partnership with NEWI Wrexham. She was the winner of the Young Artist Award at the Spirit of Llyn Art Competition 2004 with her work "Dacw'r Bwthyn Gwyn" in mixed media (opposite), she also exhibited at the 2002 Spirit Of Llŷn Exhibition, Plas Glyn-y-Weddw, Llanbedrog, and in 2003 - 2004, at Wrexham Open Exhibition, Wrexham Arts Centre.

She has since held numerous solo exhibition throughout Wales, having a popular sell-out at Plas Glyn-y-Weddw in 2006.

Art, for me, is an obsession and at the moment, being an artist is a way of life rather than just an occupation! Creativity has been an important part of my life from a very early age, and I can’t imagine life without it. However, this does not mean that it has always come easily for me, and sometimes it has been a real struggle to maintain confidence in what I am doing. The education that I have received in this area and the tuition from A-Level onwards has had a very positive influence on my development as an artist, and has given me the enthusiasm to continue to have faith in my art. My origins are very important to my work; I find that the Llŷn Peninsula is a particular inspiration.

Recently I have been working mostly in mixed media, and am slowly developing my own ‘language’ within art. Much of it is based, in an abstracted way, on architecture - Penrhyn Castle and local Welsh Churches for example. I enjoy working on paper and canvas using a variety of mediums such as pastel, paint, charcoal, ink and collage. I find that working within a set shape is very difficult because composition does not come naturally to me; therefore I prefer to tear up my canvases constantly changing their shape until I feel that it works to my satisfaction. This is an exciting process of working and you never quite know what the result might be. Aesthetic qualities are very important to me and sometimes my images can be quite ornate depending upon my inspiration.

I am not sure how to categorize my work although I believe it has some elements of Cubism, Abstract Expressionism and even Constructivism.