Artist Biography
Marta Stolarska (b. 1988) is a figurative oil painter based in Suffolk, England.
In 2011, gained an HND in Interior Architecture, qualifying as an Interior Architecture Specialist. In 2022-2023 she completed an intensive Art Mastery programme with the Milan Art Institute, after which she continued her development attending workshops and sessions from practising artists and masters, a path she has designed to develop particular aspects of her art practice.
Artist is focused on figurative work, landscapes, and still life, all united by a single preoccupation: the emotional response using the narrative and the behaviour of light.
Her work has been exhibited at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, Birmingham Open, the RBSA Exhibition, and the Purple Gallery in Bournville, Birmingham, as well as in local shows across East Anglia. Her paintings are held in private collections across the United Kingdom, Poland, and the United States.
Stolarska is also the founder of the Art Mail Club - an art print club through which she shares personal letters, reflections, poems and art with its members.
Artist Statement
Stolarska' s work is characterised as contemporary realism - working in oils her work spans figurative, landscapes, and still life.
Painting people and faces is the closest she's ever felt to truly seeing someone.
Artist is also painting the landscape and still life, by connecting it closely to human emotions through light narratives. Shows feelings subjects leave behind. The way light moves across water, suggesting the stillness, the calmness, or on the contrary, the power of nature, the power one can feel within him or herself, sometimes disruptive or even devastating.
A Note From The Artist
I lost myself.
Years in corporate taught me to close off, not trust, not ask, not feel.
I became lonely inside with a life that looked fine from the outside. I didn't realise how much I'd lost, until I tried to draw a face and couldn't find the person behind it anymore.
Lost connection to being human. Real, open, attentive, and loving human.
The time has come to stop corporate. Move to a new place and a new home.
Spend time to reflect, journal, breath in, notice. Continually training to be a better figurative artist who notices more, even the smallest things, emotions, micro expressions most people walk past, or ignore. To become an artist and human that paints people though the discerning eye, and captures moments important to them, and to all humanity. Someone who records the moments and the people that matter, before those moments are gone. My mum losing her memories really prompted me and reignited the passion I had for the humanity.
I don't know yet who I'll become on the other side of this. But I know that painting a face is the closest I've ever felt to truly seeing someone. And being seen. That's enough to keep going.
Curious about my process? Read how I make an original oil painting → how-an-original-oil-painting-is-made
or
Have a look at this beginning of an oil painting I have recorded. → Impressionist Summer Sunset with Hay Bales
If you would like to get in touch please click the contact button and message me!
Exhibitions
2026
Juried Exhibition 'The Movement' Fox Yard Studio, Stowmarket, UK
Longlisted for The Visual Art Open at VAA
Longlisted for Artist Of The Year 2026 awards at VAA
2025
RBSA Juried Group Exhibition, 4 Brook St, Birmingham, UK,
RBSA, Public Artist Talk (Background, Process, Practice) 4 Brook St, Birmingham, UK
Ongoing exhibition, Purple Gallery, Birmingham, UK
Shortlisted for Coventry Open 2025 at Herbert Art Gallery & Museum
2024
6 month Exhibition at The Gin Vault and the O Bar, Broad Street, Birmingham, UK,
6 month Exhibition at The Birmingham Open Studios, Moseley Exchange, Birmingham, UK,
Live Demonstration at Purple Gallery, Chiaroscuro Still Life
Exhibition at Birmingham Open Studios, Moseley Exchange, Birmingham, UK
Live Demonstration at Birmingham Open Studios, Moseley Exchange, Birmingham, UK
Summer Exhibition, Purple Gallery, Birmingham, UK
Juried Group Exhibition Birmingham Creates: The Open, Victoria Square, Birmingham UK,
Two Week Duo exhibition, Purple Gallery, Birmingham, UK,
2 Month Winter Exhibition, Purple Gallery, Birmingham, UK,
2023
Exhibition at Birmingham Open Studios, Moseley Exchange, Birmingham, UK
Live Demonstration at Birmingham Open Studios, Moseley Exchange, Birmingham,
June 2023, Summer Exhibition, Purple Gallery, Birmingham, UK,
Ongoing exhibition, Purple Gallery, Birmingham, UK, 2023
Professional Memberships
VAA Virtual Artists Association member
Norfolk and Norwich Art Circle member