ABOUT ME

MARKÉTA SOLECKÁ alias SoleMa

I am a self taught painter from the beautiful city of Prague, Czech Republic.

Painting is my passion since my childhood. Around 2000, I started to paint with oil. A lot of mysterious beings were flying right under my brushes during that period.

In 2014, I moved for a work, as a project manager, to Amsterdam. Seven years spent in this inspiring city were very influential for me. Not only because of its great galleries and exhibitions, but also thanks to the fact that the city is full of flowers. You can find them there everywhere: on dining tables at homes and restaurants, in shops, markets, balconies, in streets and fields… Since that time I can’t get enough of their stunning beauty and suddenly flowers became a major subject in my paintings.  Most of them are being painted from life and slowly they started to replace my flying beings.  However, as you can see in my work,  sometimes I can make also flowers fly.

It was also a time when my love affair with watercolors started. I literally don’t know how it happendd, but one day I found myself lost in beauty of watercolors. This medium immediately stole my heart. I love its fluidity, unpredictability and ability to surprise you, if you let it. Also the fact that it doesn’t allow me to control my paintings too much with my brain. On the opposite, it leads me right into the flow and there is no better feeling than when the painting process transforms into a meditation, and painting then radiates this state of mind. My ‘only’ task is then to stay relaxed and concentrated at the same time and not to get scared of possible irreversible mistakes, as watercolors can be both a joyful and unforgiving medium. 

Fun facts:
My nickname SoleMa was initially just a login into my work computer defined by the company based on my name and surname. And I kept it without thinking too long.  Later I realized that my surname (what is close to ‘salty’ meaning in Czech), contains a SOL, i.e. a sun, and I love it. Also the fact that from there it is not too far to a SUNflower whose perfect Vincent’s ones I could admire in the Vincent van Gogh museum so many times.
Last but not least, Solfeggio frequency ‘SOL’, which awakens intuition, is 741 Hz.  And my birthday is on 7.4.1yyy. So I hope my paintings can bring some sun shine into your lives and who knows, maybe even awaken your intuition too!