Karolina Jabłońska Misty woods, 2023
Misty woods belongs to Karolina Jabłońska’s series of landscape paintings. Executed in oil on canvas, the work features a single figure with disproportionally large hands going for a stroll in a secluded, wooded landscape. Wearing a dark purple raincoat with its collar turned up, the figure hides behind the garment, suggesting a desire to blend in amidst the numerous trees included in the composition.
Jabłońska’s presentation of figures braving dreary weather conditions often set in the Polish countryside, suggest analogies between weather conditions and mental and physical states. Appearing as desolate landscapes, in turn drenched, muddy or icy, her forest scenes emerge as sites for exploring personal feelings, all the while fully aware of the deceptive straightforwardness of such analogy — and wittily embracing the long history of employing landscape motifs as atmospheric markers.