Saratoga News Photograph by George Sakkestad Los Gatos artist Wanda Kownacki works on one of her paintings. Her work is on exhibit through Nov. 8 at Gallery Saratoga. Journalist discovered knack for painting Saratoga gallery shows works By Shari Kaplan "The Best Years of My Life" is a suitable title for the exhibit of Los Gatan Wanda Kow-nacki's mixed-media paintings on display through Nov. 8 at Gallery Saratoga. A former journalist and world traveler and now an accomplished artist, Kownacki has many years of memories to look back upon during this show. A native of Russia, Kownacki grew up in Poland. After graduating from the Warsaw School for Journalists, she embarked upon a career as a reporter. This didn't last long, as she and Stan, her college professor husband, left the country in 1946. They spent many years living in Europe, South America and North Africa as Stan taught at various universities. It was while living in Algeria that Kownacki became acquainted with her artistic Muse. "In Algeria I was very bored because there isn't much for a white woman to do," she says, recalling how conservative the native women were in both their clothing and their attitudes. "My daughter sent me a box of watercolors and some paper. In Algeria they have very beautiful flowers; I started to bring flowers home and paint them. Then I realized that maybe I do have some knack for this!" After the couple settled in Los Gatos in the mid-1950s, Kownacki says she took as many art classes at West Valley College as she could manage. After improving upon her craft, she began selling and exhibiting her paintings, her favorite subjects being flowers, still lifes, landscapes and nudes. These are also the themes of her Gallery Saratoga exhibition. Kownacki says she tends to paint intuitively--after she gets an image or an inspiration in her head, she has to get her thoughts on paper in the form of a painting. Sometimes the image changes and becomes quite different from the original. Whatever she's painting, however, Kownacki says her creative process is usually the same. "It has to be the right day. And it can't be forced. I have to have something in my mind that excites me, as in 'yes, this is what I'm going to do today.' If it goes right--and sometimes it doesn't--you're completely transformed; it's like you go into another world." Among Kownacki's pieces on exhibit are "Cyclamen" and "Quince," both mixed-media paintings of brightly colored floral sprays in vases. The backgrounds consist of a myriad of colors, swirled around the flowers in hues that are both complementary and contrasting. Sunflowers and several varieties of poppies also take shape under Kownacki's paintbrush, as do somewhat abstract, brooding landscape scenes such as "Ghostly Tree" and "Stream." There are also people images, including the impressionistic "Sisters," which depicts two young women and close friends who happen to be of two different races; and "Dreaming," a tasteful, slightly cubist rendering of a nude young woman basking in the sunbeams that shine through her open window. Gallery Saratoga is located at 14531 Big Basin Way, Unit 3. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. For information, call 867-0458. [ Back to Contents Page | Saratoga News Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Saratoga News, October 21, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.