Joanna Turlej – Friday Night Guest – May, 7, 2021
(Submitted by Chris Luna) Joanna Turlej was born in Warsaw, Poland and raised in the southern part of the country in an environment of beautiful nature. She fled Poland’s communist regime in search of a better life at the age of nineteen and immigrated to Canada a year later. In pursuit of an art education, she studied at OCAD (Ontario Collage of Art & Design) in Toronto and graduated with an honours degree and an award of excellence. Since her graduation, she studied under many notable artists, continuously expanding her artistic knowledge. She is an elected member of OSA (Ontario Society of Artists) and a president and a life member of CFS (Colour and Form Society).
Since 2014 her focus has been collage, where she is inspired by the natural beauty of her homeland, as well as the forests and beauty of Canada. She also creates portraits in collage, using musicians and their lyrics as inspiration. In 2015 she had her first show of collage in Monaco. She said that collage is like a puzzle and takes patience but is very relaxing to her.
In her presentation to DVAC she started with a slide show of a wide variety of her work, then she took us through a step-by-step demo of her technique. Joanna likes to work from a b/w image as she decides on what colors she will use rather than by the colors in the image. From this image she makes a tracing paper composite used to cut out shapes. On her canvas she first paints the background in acrylic, then places cut out shapes on the painted canvas, deciding on what color and paper she will use. Gradually cutting and gluing on the shapes with a small brush, she then uses liquid acrylic pens to add texture, depth, and details to shapes, continuing to completion. The final step is applying a varnish to the canvas to seal and protect. Joanna’s favored materials are quality magazine paper with colorful images, Japanese tissue paper, Canson mixed medium X2 papers, POSCA brand liquid acrylic pens, Liquitex glue, Artguard (to protect her fingers from glue), and Liquitex Satin varnish. She does not waste any paper and will use leftover cut papers to create abstract collages.
Thank you Joanna for showing us your beautiful work and for your skill, knowledge and patience You can learn more about Joanna’s work on these social media sites:
https://www.facebook.com/JoannaTurlejArt/
https://www.instagram.com/joannaturlej
