''..An artist's technique often gives clues to how he thinks about his subjects, life, beauty, and mortality. Maya Kulenovic's esthetics lies in the combination of vulnerability and strength of her subjects, and the same can be seen in the way she handles her material. In her paintings there is a constant dialog between spontaniety and control. Her technique comes from the tradition of old masters, which she studied for many years. She creates chiaroscuro effects reminiscent of Caravaggio and Rembrandt; yet, her work does not have the obsessive or decorative quality of many contemporary paintings in 'traditional realist ' style. Rather than that, Maya Kulenovic's technique is expressive, direct, fresh, and often surprising; and it invites the viewer to participate emotionally in the work.."


The paintings by Maya Kulenovic are hard to photograph. The image is created by light from within, which emerges through layers upon layes of thin glazes and transparent paint eroded and rebuilt, in sometimes intentional but often incidental manner. The result has a depth of a subtlety that is hard to capture with a camera. Her process is a play of obscuring and revealing, of randomness and control, intention and surrender. This is what gives her paintings an unusual sense of life.

Even though her paintings appear to be classical in their technique, they are anything but. Maya Kulenovic's technique is oil paint, yet there is very little paint present. She builds the painting from a simple monochrome, watery sketch done in medium with little pigment, indicating light, shadow and emotion, directly painted on canvas in broad strokes od a single wide brush. She covers the entire canvas within several minutes, and from this moment, the painting shows presence and character. Each subsequent layer, subtly changes and defines the painting, slowly enveloping it in shadow and giving it it's volume and presence, obscuring some elements of the initial image, and revealing others. Shadow in Maya Kulenovic's work is never empty, but it is concealing parts of the image. Transparent layers are often applied randomly and quickly, sometimes using surprising colours, introducing an element of chaos and spontaniety, undermining the classical tone of the painting. The artist then makes decisions which ones of these accidents she wishes to keep and which to erase, yet the traces of these actions can always be seen by an observant eye.

In Maya Kulenovic's work there are no flat colour fields or even brushstrokes. Every section of the canvas, every colour, including shadowy, seemingly black background, is the result of many overlaping layers of different transparent vibrant pigments. She often uses between 10 and 20 layers per painting and sometimes more. Kulenovic does not use opaque pigments .


About her technique she says:


"My esthetics and sensibility come from classical art. I have always been drawn towards the dramatic, epic feeling of classical art and mythology rather than the more contemporary imagery or narrative. My images have a classical feel to them, because this is the way my hand and eye work. But in many regards they are neither classical nor representational. A painting starts as a real image, but as I paint, the image I see is not only the figurative element, rather, it is the relationship of light and shadow, bright and dark areas of the canvas, and an often uneasy balance of these elements as they push each other and struggle over the areas in between. Light is in a conflict with shadow, yet they define each other, together they bring into existance the figurative image underneath, but at the same time they threaten its integrity. I see shadows as both protective and suffocating, and light as redemptive and obliterating. This balance between light, shadow, and the fragile reality in between is what the psychology of these images is built upon;  the expressions and particularities of the faces are secondary.

The process of painting is a sort of a struggle that is neither predetermined nor neutral; each is it's own complex battle. The classical element in it is related to the figurative nature of the image, but it is subverted by a subsequent process of  erasure,  which is in its essence abstract, random. I use thin and transparent layers of paint to define the image - the defining layers are usually in the classical palette - using a wide glazing brush, then I follow up with a layer of destruction, using whatever I get my hands on - rags of different textures, blades, palet knives, hardened brushes, wire brushes,sandpaper, , different solvents. Often the 'destruction' layer has nothing to do with the realism of the image at all, but it is applied randomly and haphazardly, completely ignoring the classical image underneath. Other times I use it to obliterate areas in light, exposing the canvas underneath. Much of the light in the painting comes from the canvas, and I try to use as little paint as I can. Sometimes instead of erasure, I use a randomly applied layer of an illogical or bright colour, the remnants of which can be seen in traces. So, in a way, my process of painting lately has been creating a defined image, then allowing it to be partially destroyed, and then rebuilding again on the remains. I find this dialog between creation and destruction (or control and abandon) strangely comforting and appropriate."

all images: copyright Maya Kulenovic 2003-11