František

The painting František is a very personal piece for me. It is essentially a specific kind of portrait—not of a face, but of an atmosphere and a place. It captures my friend František at the Nechranice reservoir, where my friends and I go fishing every year. However, the true hero of this canvas is the evening itself. The sunsets over Nechranice are so red, magnificent, and powerful that their colors sometimes bring tears to my eyes. It might sound pathetic, but that is exactly what the moment feels like. When I sit on the dam there, I just silently stare at that natural splendor. In the painting, I tried to capture that immense energy of light piercing the sky and the water's surface, while we—the fishermen on the shore—are merely quiet, geometrized shadows in this grandiose scenery.