WŁADYSŁAW MIRECKI
Birthdays may essentially be different from
no other days, but at 50 any artist, writer
or composer is entitled to pause and reflect
on what has been achieved and what may yet be.
Although at points during his life Władysław
Mirecki may have felt unsure about his accomplishment
and apprehensive about his future as a painter,
as he surveys the walls of the Chappel Galleries
on the occasion of his fiftieth birthday exhibition
he need feel no such doubts. Mirecki is established
as a highly technically accomplished watercolourist
with a strong sense of place.
For Waj, as he is widely known, the way ahead
has not always been obvious and chance has frequently
dictated the route. Early auguries were good.
Even as a very small child he demonstrated high
intelligence and an awareness of the world around
him that would be essential assets for an artist,
skills put into good effect at secondary school.
Unlike many potential artists, however, Mirecki
in his teens remained undecided as to whether
he should become a painter or, like his brothers,
pursue a scientific career. It was a quandary
that would bedevil his time at Kingston Polytechnic,
Royal College of Art/Imperial College and various
jobs. Not surprisingly, there were periods of
depression well into his twenties.
A return to his roots at Chelmsford, part-time
work at the railway museum at Chappel and Wakes
Colne, the discovery of the emerging Chappel
Galleries, marriage to Edna Battye their founder
and her and Waj’s joint development of
the space as an important centre for established
and emerging artists – this all contributed
to set Mirecki on course to become a serious
painter. In the Colne Valley and specifically
that miracle of Victorian engineering the Chappel
viaduct which dominates the view from the gallery,
Mirecki found his equivalent to John Constable’s
Stour, Samuel Palmer’s Shoreham and Stanley
Spencer’s Cookham. Appropriately, when
a recent BBC television programme was made about
singular features of East Anglia, Mirecki was
asked to talk about the viaduct.
It features in his current exhibition, but recent
years have shown that Mirecki’s horizons
are not limited to it and that his work already
has international appeal. A pleasing aspect
of his last solo exhibition at the Chappel Galleries,
in 2003, was a new group of works based on views
of the Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk coastlines.
In 1999, he was invited to have a solo show
at Jiangsu Provincial Art Gallery, in Nanjing,
China, where it and the Jiangsu Province Department
of Culture acquired his work and it received
wide popular acclaim. What he saw there, and
the constant interaction with artists showing
at the Chappel Galleries have undoubtedly nourished
his own work.
Fundamentally, however, Mirecki remains a selftaught,
self-directed painter. Skills are often hard-won
for such autodidacts. Among the benefits are
that they develop as individuals, not mere clones
of a one teacher or a straightjacket college
tradition. Mirecki at 50 is very much his own
man, and how he develops will be fascinating
to observe.
W MIRECKI
Born Chelmsford, Essex 1956, of Polish parentage.
He is self-taught, having painted all his life
including his periods gaining his science degree,
as an industrial designer and co-proprietor
of Chappel Galleries.
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EXHIBITED: |
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New English Art Club, Mall
Galleries, London
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Epping Forest District Museum
“Artists in Essex”
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Southend on Sea 31st Open
Exhibition (purchase by Essex County Council
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Chappel Galleries Solo Exhibition |
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Foyles Art Gallery, London
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Department of Transport Art
Competition, Mall Galleries, London
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Deuxième Salon Biennale
de L’Aquarelle, Hirson, France (touring
show Chelmsford 1993)
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Essex County Council, Deputy
Lord Lieutenant of Commission, Essex
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Solo Exhibition Chappel Galleries,
10th Anniversary Exhibition
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Singer and Friedlander, Sunday
Times Exhibition, London
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Beecroft Art Gallery, Essex,
Open Exhibition
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1999 |
Solo Exhibition,
Jiangsu Provincial Art Gallery Nanjing, People’s
Republic of China. Work acquired by Jiangsu Provincial
Art Gallery and Jiangsu Province Department of
Culture. Solo exhibition, Chappel Galleries |
2000 |
Work acquired by
Chelmsford Museums, Essex and Ipswich Borough
Museums, Suffolk |
2002 |
Blyth Spirit “Walberswick Artists 1880–2000”,
Chappel Galleries |
2003 |
Chappel Galleries, solo exhibition WH Pattersons,
London, Christmas mixed |
2004 |
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Dove Barn,
Boxford, Suffolk WH Pattersons, London, Christmas
mixed |
2006 |
Chappel Galleries, Solo Exhibition |
2007 |
Royal
Watercolour Society Open Competition, Bankside
Gallery, London
Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours,
Mall Galleries, London
Royal Society of British Artists Annual
Exhibition Mall Galleries, London:
Winner of the Edward Wesson Award.
Beecroft Art Gallery, Westcliffe on Sea, Essex 49th Essex Open Exhibition:
Awarded Prize and Shirley Robson Bowl for the best watercolour
Chappel Galleries, Essex ‘Southwold, the East Coast’
Sunday Times/Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander, London: 3rd Prize Winner,
The
Mall Galleries, London
Lynn Painter-Stainers, London
Chichester Open Art Exhibition, Chichester
Royal West of England Academy 155th Autumn Exhibition, Bristol
New English Art Club, The Mall Galleries, London |
2008 |
RWS/Sunday
Times watercolour competition, Bankside Gallery,
London
Lynn Painters-Stainers, London (short listed
for Prize) |
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COLLECTIONS |
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1989 |
Essex
County Council |
1999 |
Jiangsu
Province Art Museum, People’s Republic
of China
Jiangsu Province Department of Culture,
People’s republic of China |
2000 |
Chelmsford
Museums, Essex
Ipswich Borough Council Museums & Galleries,
Suffolk
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PUBLICATIONS |
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2000 |
February
Edition, Jiangsu Art Monthly
April Edition, Artists & Illustrators
Magazine |
2003 |
A Walk in the Country – 32pp Monograph |
2006 |
Monograph to accompany Solo Exhibition Featured
in “Southwold: An Earthly Paradise”
by Geoffrey Munn, published by Antique Collectors
Club
Władysław Mirecki at Fifty – 32pp Monograph
BBC Television Programme: ‘Seven Man-made
Wonders of the East’ interview
about Chappel Viaduct, showing Mirecki’s paintings depicting the Viaduct.
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