Michał Łukasiewicz - born in 1974 in Puławy. From 1995, he lived and worked in Antwerp, Belgium for over twenty years. He is a self-taught painter and, as he admits, the work of the Benelux countries had a great influence on his artistic activities. In his paintings, mainly on portrait subjects, light plays an important role. Recently, he has been experimenting with colour in the form of seemingly random stains, which gives it a somewhat modern character, embedded in the classical tradition of creativity.

"I learned 5 years of secondary artistic school in Naleczow, Poland, shortly after I moved to Antwep, Belgium where I had my first exhibitions. After 20 years I returned to Pulawy, Poland. Recently I gave up cooperation with my galleries and went independent,  trying to earn my living selling works directly to collectors.

I paint on heavyly primed panels, on a sketch I apply a thin layers of acrylic ultramarine mixed with burnt umber and water. Let it dry about 24 hours. Next day I remove the paint with a dishwashing sponge (obviously I remove it from highlights only, leaving  it in shadows. I repeat the process 4- 5 times until the tones are at right values. Now having blurred, slightly pale image I add all the details and deeper shadows with thin brush. It's the most time-consuming part.

To save time I usually work with several pieces simultaneously, often leaving them unfinished at certain stage for months, other times I finish (smaller pieces) within a week.
Not getting too deep into details of my technique. I developed myself over two decades, and still evolving.  The key is building a painting by removing as well as adding various layers of paint.

Long periods between drying of the several paint means I work on several pieces simultaneously.  I admit I often bite more than I can chew  and start too many painting  working on them infrequently, resulting in periods of months between start."

Michal's collaboration with REPO-LDN was an exciting opportunity allowing for a different avenue of expression for his work. One which could stayed true to his artistic vision yet complimented our brand. 

Click here to see the process of some of his pieces: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LDAfcHmaSY