Born 1979, Alexandra Pacula is a Polish-born painter who creates modern-impressionist art. Painting since the young age of twelve, Pacula has always had an interest in painting. This interest in painting only grew as she got older, and in 2005, her painting style began to evolve into the style that most know her for today. Specifically, in 2005, Pacula got her first digital camera to which she began to notice how useful photographs can serve as a reference of inspiration toward the paintings that she wanted to create. In her images, she took note of the way light impacts reflections in the environment around her and this directly translates over into her paintings in which the light in the environment around her reflects off a variety of surfaces, creating a “dreamy” and fleeting atmosphere around her work.
For a large majority of her portfolio, Pacula’s paintings capture scenic moments throughout Manhattan, New York. Including the Empire State Building, skyscrapers in the West Side of Manhattan, as well as views from the streets of Times Square, Pacula focuses on the whimsical allure of nightlife in the city that never sleeps. Her paintings closely resemble photographs with various levels of motion blur created from a slower shutter speed. The level of motion blur within Pacula’s paintings never make the scenery she paints feel indecipherable to the human eye, but instead just blurred enough to the extent where you have a general idea of what you’re looking at. One of the many unique factors within her work is how she uses color. Specifically, Pacula uses colors in such a way in which artificial lights within her paintings are very bright, neon colors, which directly contrast with the extremely dark tones of buildings and other street fixtures within her images. Another unique factor within her work is the way in which the colors expand in different directions within the image. This is extremely reminiscent of light drawing, and the way in which she draws with light impacts the perspectives within the image greatly.
Pacula is a well renowned artist, with her work being displayed across the world, amongst the fact that she’s won several awards including the Saatchi Showdown Competition back in 2008.
Here are some of her paintings below:
Progressive Current, Oil on Canvas, 90 X 108. 2010
Transient Horizon, Oil on Canvas, 72 X 44. 2018
Shimmering Dusk 2, Oil on Canvas, 16 X 20. 2017
My presentation can be found here.