Excursion to Poland

Almost 20 years ago I painted this illustration for Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal.

In September I finally got to go to Poland. The trip was a feast of color and beauty. I am sharing a gazillion images with you here. Enjoy the scroll and the stroll!

Margaret Chodos-Irvine and I joined an excursion led by Karolina Merska to look at folk art in Warsaw and surrounding towns. Karolina wrote a book on making Polish Pajaki (mobiles), and she has a store in London called Folka.

Karolina is a joyful person – an exuberant, knowledgeable and wonderful tour guide.

She cares deeply about preserving and sharing the folk arts of Poland.

Karolina took 6 of us – all women- to museums, homes, villages and fairs. The group was fantastic. Everyone was ready to roll.

We saw textiles.

And papercuts called Wycinanki. We saw them in museums and homes, and tried cutting our own.

Traditional Wycinanki were glued right onto the walls of the houses. Once a year they would be washed off and new ones glued on.

Different regions of the country have different styles of papercuts.

We saw Pysanki (decorated eggs).

We saw papercuts on eggs,

And Pajaki (mobiles).

We saw carved people. These sculptures are from the Folk Museum of the Brzozowski Family.

Julian Brzozowski created over 400 sculptures of people, animals and birds, including many that had special engines that made the sculptures move.

We saw painted houses and houses with paper curtains.

It was wonderful to walk through new doors to a different culture.

I hope you enjoyed this colorful journey to Poland in the midst of winter. The painting below and the two paintings at the start of the blog are by Maria Kosińska.

Dziękuję i do widzenia.

Posted by Julie Paschkis