Dominik J Modlinski

Dominik Modlinski immigrated to Canada at the age of 16, at which point he studied painting and drawing at the Ontario College of Art. While studying landscape painting, he was naturally drawn to the wilderness of Northern Ontario. In the summer of 1993, he moved to Algoma to paint at the Algoma School of Landscape Arts. This location provided unlimited access to the wilderness and a greater understanding of the Group of Seven’s involvement with the land.

Dominik Modlinski’s numerous wilderness expeditions have encompassed his physical experience of the land and sense of adventure, which in turn has inspired his work. He has done several trips across the Rockies. Artistically, the majestic mountains of Kluane National Park are as much of an inspiration to Dominik as the landscape of Algoma and Lake Superior country.

ARTIST STATEMENT

“Living and painting on location for several days is in my view mandatory for creating a successful studio work. Working on it from photographs cannot be a very successful undertaking. It’s just a reproduction. When you live and work right on the spot, when you’re experiencing the weather changes, the animals that travel (lots of times it’s a grizzly that travels right beside... in front of my easel), you really learn to feel the land, that particular mountain, that particular river or forest. So later on in my studio, it’s like being in a library. I’m able to pull the senses, the smell of the location and remember how it felt and I’m able to apply that into the brushstroke. The brushstroke is a representation of how an artist feels at that given moment. It is one of the most difficult challenges: to be able to recreate that feeling that you have when you are in the field later on in the studio work.”

Born 1970 in Warsaw, Poland. Currently based in Nanaimo, BC. Nationality is Canadian.