Lucie Pacovska

"I first came in contact with the paintings of Lucie Pacovska when she exhibited at the Balla Bán Gallery in Dublin in August last year and I have been a fan ever since.

Lucie is a native of Prague who chose to make Dublin her home. Her attraction to the capital city came about as a result of her interest in Irish history and mythology. She also wanted to experience the Irish art scene at first hand. Lucie studied Art and Design in Prague and it was while she was studying Life Drawing that she became fascinated by the human form and in particular the female body. This has lead Lucie to her chosen style of Abstract Figurative painting.

Lucie loves the wildness and tranquillity of Kerry which she finds inspiring and occasionally she deserts the Dublin Metropolis to disappear into its wilderness to paint and to think. When Lucie was invited by Noelle Campbell Sharp to take up a residency at the Art Village at Cill Rialaig she jumped at the chance. Her time in Cill Rialaig was most productive and gave her time and the space to hone her artistic skills.

Lucie Pacovska’s work is complex as it attempts to go beyond the purely physical it looks into the deeper reaches of the soul. Take the title of some of her painting for instance “Lady Jealously”, “Hurt by You”, “Scars” They portray aspects of the human condition – feelings, emotions experienced by most of us at some stage in our lives. But her complexity does not mean inaccessibility – her oils in brash primary colours are a joy to look at. In other words one does not have to understand the mind of the artist to enjoy her work-but it does help.

What I like about Lucie’s work is that it is forever reinventing itself and in each new exhibition there is a freshness in thought and form. Stagnancy is not a word in Lucie’s vocabulary.

Lucie Pacovska is not a prolific artist. A lot of thought, artistry and time goes into each of her paintings – she does not produce vast quantities of work." - Shay Howell

Shay Howell is a Dublin based Antiquarian Book and Print seller. He was Formally a Senior Television Researcher with RTE