My name is Jolanta Kędra and I am a Polish-Canadian self-taught painter, photographer and crafter.  

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Nature is my greatest inspiration.  Luckily, Saskatoon, the city that I live in for over 30 years, has beautiful hiking trails incorporated in its urban settings and I don't even have to leave the city to admire wildlife and nature. In my younger years, I used to travel quite a bit and quite a distance but the last few years I got really fascinated with back roads and rural Saskatchewan.

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I am a colourist and prefer bright hues.  I like simple, cheerful, and pretty.  Most of my artwork is in a realistic style but sometimes I do more loose, abstract forms and just play with shapes, brush strokes and colours.  I see creativity as a positive energy. Spreading and sharing that energy is my goal.  I have, with true pleasure, given away, sold at below the cost or donated to charity auctions many of my creations.  Many of my photographs can be found on free sharing platforms such as Pixabay, Pexels and Paint My Photo. 

 

My painting journey started in 2015 as an attempt to fulfill my childhood dream of being an artist. In 2020, I started to learn photography, first for gathering my own reference material and then as another form of creativity.

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I grew up in a small village, south of Cracow, in picturesque foothills of Tatra Mountains. I have always been a bit of a dreamer and as a youngest of five kids, I usually got away with not helping around the house and a small farm as much as my older siblings had to.  I filled my days with reading, drawing and wandering around the neighbouring woods and creeks.  One of my elementary school teachers encouraged me to pursue the education in art but... at that time; it was something completely out of my reach.  Poland then was a different country than it is now. Although Poland was more of a socialist than communist state, it was under Soviet influence and things were rather grim politically and economically. I left my homeland in 1988 and seeked a new life in Canada.

 

The everyday life, work and family kept me busy in my younger years and my artist dream resurfaced sometimes as a thought that painting would be my retirement project. However, in 2015, I was not planning to retire, on the contrary, I had to pull all my survival skills to get over a life bump.  Perhaps, looking for ways to cheer myself up, I bought a cheap charcoal sketching kit.  For most people this would mean nothing but for me this charcoal kit took me all the way to my childhood when I was dreaming about such stuff, but could not lay my hands on it. One day, my adult son saw my charcoal doodles and pep talked me into taking them further. How interesting that we encourage and motivate our children when they are young and then they prop us up later.

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Sharing my creative endeavours with other people boosts my creative energy. I am forever grateful to all of my social media followers, people who emailed me with their positive comments, who took time to have a chat at life events, collectors who bought my paintings, photographs or crafts, as well as anyone who has supported me in too many different ways to be listed here. And special thank you to my family and friends.  Love you ALL! 

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THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR VISITING AND PLEASE COME BY AGAIN!

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