Painting on wood given back by sea

On the beach in Świnoujście after the storm you can meat Tadeusz Zielinski. He is the local painter. He walks slowly, picking up almost every piece of wood. He looks at it and caresses it. After a careful considerations he takes it with him. Every time he wonders what kind of story will be told by the particular piece of wood. After a few weeks a painting painted on the wood given back by the sea will astonish lots of people. Wood has life-says Tadeusz Zielinski-it emits warmth-he continues. When I take a piece of wood in hand, I wonder where it comes from and how long has it been in the sea for. Is is a part of a sunken boat? When the artist starts his work he tries to choose pieces of wood to create a whole. He never cuts them or smoothes them to fit. They are very plastic in itself-he says. Tadeusz Zielinski sits above the ready to paint piece of wood. He touches it and caresses it. In such a way he communicates with it. He says that it will tell him what to paint, and how to do it. Most often it is sacral painting or marine painting. During his life he has painted mostly icons. His first painting was an icon on a piece of wood dug up from a pile of clay. It has been 35 years since than. Works of Tadeusz Zielinski can be seen in local churches and Mariner House. There are two works he can’t live without one is a pieta painted on a piece of wood given back by the sea -you can see how quickly paintings created directly on wood fade away. I have to reapaint it every now and than-says Tadeusz Zielinski. Deisis or Jesus surrounded by saints hungs over the fire place. This way it is tested for heat. It is painted on treated wood. The surface is cleaned, fats and lipids are removed. It is smoothed. On such surface cloth is stretched. Only than you can paint the artwork. Later on the artist created the little surface cracks that make the icons look aged. It is a deep secret than Mr. Zielinsks doesn’t share with anybody.

Its nice to sit in a place where every piece of natural material has found its place. The artist himself says that he appreciates wood more and more. Wood lives – says Zielinski-wood works with the man.

Katarzyna Czerwinska