Anna Karyoti (Grazyna Skonieczna) was born in Lodz (Poland) in 1955, the daughter of an artist humorist, caricaturist and painter, who was an early and important influence on her artistic awareness and sensibilities. She studied art in PWSSP, Lodz, now known as the Academy of Fine Art.

The starting point of her career was her move to London. In 1985 she launched GG Graphic Design, which operated internationally, specialising in greeting cards and corporate design for nursery products. Through collaboration with many publishing houses in Britain, Sweden, Denmark and France, her designs were distributed in Europe, the USA and Japan. She participated in a number of International Art Fairs in Britain (Birmingham, York, London), the USA (New York, Jarvits Centre) and Germany (Frankfurt, International Gift Fair).

Meanwhile, Karyoti continued her painting career, pursuing her life-long fascination and experimentation with watercolour techniques.

“I love watercolour as a medium, because it allows me to render the images through the prism of vibrant, translucent and luminous colours”.

A dominant theme in Karyoti's watercolours is a figurative world through which she conveys atmosphere and emotions with a subtlety of colour in graduations of tone and fine brushwork. Her purely abstract work is more concerned with a structureless world of colour, form and symbolism.

In 1992 she moved with her family to France, a new source of artistic inspiration. The experience of travelling widely in Europe (Italy, Spain, Greece and many regions of France) has made an invaluable contribution to the development of her watercolour technique and therefore played an important role in artistic expression. Nature, in particular the heat of the sun and the intensity of colour in the Mediterranean landscape, stimulates her creative senses.

At the same time Karyoti began working with acrylics. Discarding traditional media in her work, she employs translucent paper, textured materials and metallic pigment. These play with light and transform the painted surface, creating a new depth to the painting. The effect of a relief is created by layering( marouflage). This enables her to capture the atmosphere of luminous and opalescent reality.
She moved to Switzerland in1997, once again new horizons, new experience. She lives in Geneva.

Artist Statement :

"I strive for harmony, the free flow of positive energy and its vibrations within the elements of the picture. My paintings represent a world between reality and abstraction combined with allegorical elements. I paint what I feel, what I think and what my subconscious dictates. I seek to associate the ‘real story’ with the myth. I hope that my work will both excite and incite."

www.annakaryoti.com
Email: annakaryoti@hotmail.com

Portfolio: