A self- taught graphic artist and painter. Piotr’s adventure with art begun at the age of 4 when, during a train trip to Warsaw in 1983, he began drawing the objects passing him by along the way. He would continue these trips regularly for the next five years. At the time, Piotr was undergoing treatment at the Children’s Health Institute in Warsaw following a diagnosis of early infantile autism.
Even in those early days, his drawings had an exceptional quality to them, found particularly in his ability to realistically capture the objects he portrayed. The trips allowed young Piotr to become acquainted with motion, roads, vehicles, railway stations, people, etc. – and he was truly fascinated by all of those, recalls Teresa – Piotr’s mother. His greatest passion, however, were trains, which he would often draw for hours on end.
The “Kolej na Piotra” exhibition [the name is a play on words: Piotr’s Turn/Piotr’s Railway] features works created over a period of several years. They revolve around the topic of railway and trains, as years after that early fascination Piotr found the theme to be still strongly rooted in his heart. In the second instalment of the exhibition a selection of Piotr’s more abstract works will be presented, as developed under the influence of his late mentor, Stanisław Piro Pyra.
Train
“Train”- on a white, 20 x 30 cm sheet of paper. The author draws a train spanning the entire length of the page, left to right. As is characteristic of his style, the image is nearly photorealistic, indeed one needs to come very close to be able to discern the delicate, short strokes of the black felt-tip pen. On the left, we see the driver’s compartment, followed to the right by a section of the first carriage, all drawn with a meticulous attention to detail and depicting all the elements of the complex machinery: the wheels, buffers, screw heads, rails, tiny lettering, laterally all – no matter how minute – elements that comprise the mighty vehicle. Delicate, subtle strokes of the pen bring out the smoke hovering over the train, darker at the bottom and gradually fading into grey, growing more dispersed towards the top of the sheet. The train is a construct of shadow and light achieved through the use of delicate and stronger, darker stokes of the felt-tip pen. A third of the page below the rails is populated with tiny, short, infrequent lines representing tufts of grass.
Caption in the top right corner reads ‘PKP’ [abbreviated name of the Polish State Railways] written with a black ballpoint pen in heavy, angular letters. The author’s signature in the bottom left corner seems very deliberate, letters carefully drawn, almost child-like.
Train
”Train” – oil on canvas, 30 x 40 cm. The author depicts a high-speed, modern train in motion, its body white with a red horizontal stripe in the middle. The train cuts across the canvas from left to right. On the right – a large broadleaf bush and the driver’s compartment, on the left – two carriages and a part of the third, cut short by the edge of the canvas. Tufts of grass in the bottom of the painting are in yellow and two shades of green. Above the train we see orange fields that turn yellow and finally dark green in the distance. The field reaches the horizon where silhouettes of several tiny, white houses with red roofs and a few trees are visible. The top third of the painting, above the buildings and trees, is a blue sky scattered with small, white, billowy clouds. The artist opted for the use of radiant and cheerful, somewhat unrealistic colours. In front of the train, which is the focal point of the painting, looms an electric pylon – all pylons in the picture are painted green. At the bottom of the painting the author signed his name and surname using a black pen. Characteristically, the signatures on all his drawings and paintings always seem somewhat inept and clumsy, as if written by a child.
