As one moves through the space, individual horizons and plans are gradually unfolding. The same applies to observing Plesl's paintings, which only reveal their essence after a thorough examination. The works have a complex structure, even though they are created without a predetermined process. Lines, layering, thick texture, intense color, and the freedom of the painterly gesture are applied here.
His inspiration comes mainly from his native Pojizeří region. A region characterized by its rough northern character. A region of steep rocky slopes, gloomy moorlands, and forests without end. A region that profoundly influenced Plesl's romantic approach to painting.
Although Plesl has torn the threads that bind his works to identifiable objectivity, he gives us as a guide the titles of his paintings, which have preserved their concreteness and descriptiveness. Mountain Pass, Rock and Waterfall, Gorge – these are the elements that Tomáš Plesl hides behind the resulting impasto brushstrokes, abstracting and simplifying their form. Plesl's paintings thus leave room for one's own imagination while offering an intimate insight into his emotional landscape.
About the author
Tomáš Plesl is trained as a glassmaker and has been working as a teacher at the High School of Applied Arts for Glassmaking for several years. However, from the outset, Plesl gravitated rather towards painting in his practice. From the mid-1990s until 2010, he was mainly engaged in figurative and representational painting, looking for subjects such as still lifes, portraits, or other figurative compositions. This period is characterized by the strong influence of 19th-century European avant-garde movements such as German Expressionism, Fauvism as well as Cubism or Primitivism.
Gradually, Plesl moved away from the figurative and towards an increasing abstraction of forms. Even though the subject matter is based in the real world, he simplifies the forms in shape and color. He strips his work of its individual character and creates universal concepts. The observer is thus forced to interpret only in terms of subjective feeling.
In his practice, Plesl is intuitively guided by the inspiration of the concrete moment and the excitement of physical participation in the creative process. His often large-scale paintings are characterized by their intense color and expressive texture. In the last decade, he has primarily concentrated on depicting landscapes, both natural and urban, for which he finds inspiration mainly in the Pojizeří region, where he lives and works.
