Bára Golasowská “Life Is Just a Moment”

We sit perched on barstools at Zižkovšiška, where Bára’s paintings currently decorate the walls. It’s my favorite place in Prague; it feels like hanging out in a friend’s living room. We get refills of wine from Gordon, who runs the place, and Bára begins her story. “I was born in Moravia, and spent all my childhood in a small village, in a forest, with friends.” She explains that growing up close to nature had a big influence on her paintings. “I love it all – mountains, rivers, and waterfalls.”

“When I was a child, I was very sick, very often. I had my pencils and books in the bed, and I just created something all the time. When I was seven, my teacher asked me to paint the scenery for a school play. And that was my first exhibition ever. And it was fun!”

“At that time, I told a teacher of mine that I will became a painter. And she asked me if I meant a room painter.” – “What a bitch!” I can’t help myself, and we both laugh. “It wasn’t funny at that time,” Bára continues. “She made each student to stand up in front of the class and say what we will do as adults. And I said I would be a painter. And that was my first milestone, at the age of seven.”

“I studied how to draw, how to paint…”

“…but I wasn’t successful enough to go study at an art school, so I went to a gymnázium, in Havířov.” During high school, Bára met her two biggest influencers. “There was my art teacher Magdalena. And there was another teacher, who was an Impressionist. I was learning from him how to see the light, how to see the shadows… he taught me very much. He’s not alive anymore. He taught me how to be a painter of moments.”

Magdalena helped Bára prepare for her high school’s art exit exam. After that, Bára and painting parted ways. “I went to study law and business. I decided that it’s not good for me to make money through art. And then I got married, I got divorced, and the break from doing any art was almost 20 years.”

“My motivation to get back to art were emotions, and feelings, and the passion for it.”

“After the divorce, I started to travel more. I had more time to think about myself, and what I love. I got back to painting and it seemed to be some kind of destiny. It felt very natural. I focused my mind on creating something important. It comes from my soul, it’s like a flow.… When I paint, I just feel great.”

“In 2017, I started to paint very intensively. And in 2018, I had around 100 paintings. My high school teacher Magdalena – we became friends – she asked me, ‘Why don’t you think about having an exhibition?’ And I said, ‘I am thinking, but I’m not ready.’ And she said, ‘You are completely ready.’”

Before her first exhibition in Semilasso in Brno, Bára was sitting on her blue couch in South Moravia, holding her laptop. “I was trying to create a Facebook page, and I needed a gmail account… And I needed a name. I decided to have my business cards there too. I played a game with my brain, with the word “impress”, “moments”, “Impressionists”, because I thought I’m basically Impressionist, and suddenly, I had a name – “The Painter of Moments”.”

“Life is just a moment.”

“When painting, I want to catch the moments of our lives, nature, different motions, emotions… They make our lives more colourful. It really takes only two or three minutes. Life is very quick. It’s not so deep; it’s simple. And I want people to understand my paintings; I’m not able to do something without a story. I like when it’s visible, what the artist is doing.”

We get to the less romantic side of Bára’s passion when I ask her how she makes her living. “I have a job. It’s a full-time job. I create my paintings on the weekends, at night… every moment I have. Mainly when I’m on vacation.  My boss knows that I paint; several of my paintings are in our offices. Everyone around me knows that I’m crazy about colours.” Bára sells her paintings too. “It makes some money, maybe like 10% of my income, so that covers my travelling.”

“To find the balance between art and other parts of my life is the most difficult part.”

The obvious question comes to my mind – how do you juggle all this? “I would like to paint 12 hours a day, but I have to get up and go make money, I paint every evening when I get back home, if I have the energy. Or sometimes I paint in the morning, from five to six. I use very often acrylic colours, and you have to work with them very fast. So when you have one hour, you are able to establish the basic of the painting very well. You can go to work and come back and create the details. So thank god I am able to work with acrylic colours very quickly.”

Bára’s family had some objections about her schedule. “I live 400 km from them and I have to go there when I want to be with them. I stay overnight and I manage to paint in my father’s house. My stuff is there, so I made several of my paintings in North Moravia.” Bára’s family realized what painting really meant for her when they visited her biggest exhibition. “When they saw the paintings all together, in one place, that was the breaking point. They understood that I really know what to do with my time. It was this autumn. I was crying,” she laughs. “I was really satisfied, and I was crying.”

Bára moved to Prague exactly one year ago. 

“When I was married, I lived in South Moravia. It was the end of a chapter for me, so I decided to move.” Within 14 days, Bára found an inexpensive apartment in Prague with some space for painting. “Everything was supporting me to do this change. I am happy here. There are many opportunities for artists; we are sitting now in a bar with my paintings, and I’m very happy for it. You and the gang showed me this place. Prague is full of this kind of opportunities, and I want to go for them.”

“Next year, I would be happy to have my paintings in Lucerna. I will be ready next spring. So for now, the challenge is to block the dates.”  Bára reveals more of her future plans. “I have to study how to bring more people into my work. That’s another challenge for this year. To paint more faces, more people… more life, not just nature and sunrises and sunsets.”

Bára closes with some words of encouragement for other creators. “Don’t waste time with doubts, that you are not worth it. Do what you really love.”

Check-out a video from Bára’s exhibition opening at Žižkovšiška.

You can follow her art on the following links:

• Website
• Facebook
• Instagram

For more stories go to Interviews.