Jiří Mastil

I started creating art spontaneously when I was about eight years old. I just got hooked on it. Even while in elementary school, I had some success in art competitions in my home district. After college, I moved to beautiful, historic Prague in search of work and cultural life. There, I embarked on an interesting career in an office setting. The work was quite demanding, so I only had time for art sporadically. I exhibited for the first time at the 13th Salon of Young Artists in 1987. I am self-taught, and over the course of these decades, I have experimented with a variety of artistic techniques: drawing with all sorts of media, linocut, and scratch painting with ink on chalk paper. I have also devoted myself to ceramics and silk painting. Watercolor is amazing—it creates interesting textures on its own as the paint bleeds and dries. I also use masking fluid and masking tape, and salt crystals create unique effects as well. I use charcoal underdrawings for dry pastels and acrylic paints, which I switched to from oil painting. I enjoy layering colorful coats of paint, which create vibrations and an Impressionist effect. For quick sketches, I’ve also discovered liquid charcoal and liquid graphite. I’ve even devised a new technique—dry pastels blended with acrylic medium. Discovering new techniques is such an adventure for me. Fortunately, over time, the availability of specialized literature and the frequency of creative inspiration have increased. Today, the wealth of materials and supplies available in online stores is enough to make any artist’s heart leap for joy. My apartment wouldn’t be big enough to hold all my canvases, so I prefer to work on stretched paper.

Another turning point came after I retired, when I had more time for everything. I took a semester-long course in figure drawing and painting at the Balbínova Art School. The human figure is a great challenge for me. Thematically, I also focus on depicting historical architecture, animals, and nature, as well as memories from my travels. After all, the world is so beautiful!

In 2024, I had a solo retrospective exhibition of sixty works in the atrium of the Prague 13 municipal office. After the installation, the organizers hastily and unexpectedly invited a regional television station to cover the opening.