Jiří Šimek

I didn't have any relation to art, so to speak. It may sound unbelievable, but I only started painting on the basis of a very vivid dream. When I dreamt I painted a picture. That was sometime in 1996. I got up in the morning and started to try my first painting. Of course, I had never painted before, so I was not good at all at the work and after a while I gave it up. Still, I didn't give up, so I went to a bookstore and bought my first book on painting, where I started to learn drawing and painting techniques. After studying about the sixth book, I came to the conclusion that it would be good to be guided by an expert, so I started attending an adult drawing course at the ZUŠ in Most, where I attended for about two years. Then I had a creative break for about 12 years, when I started my own business. After closing the business in 2012, I returned to drawing and started painting every day for several hours. I started by watching various videos on a youtube channel where I learned oil painting techniques and started trying to paint all sorts of things. First I had a period of landscapes, then still lifes until I got to portrait painting, which I still do today. Nowadays I try to paint as realistically as possible, so called hyperrealism. My story is to show everyone that everyone can achieve their dreams and it doesn't have to be about painting. We can make everything we believe in come true.