"We, artists, all wish to be immortal in our creations“ • Tomasz Czajkowsky

It’s great to see people from different fields enjoying KOH-I-NOOR products in their free time. Today we would like to present to you a Polish designer, Tomasz Czajkowsky who tries to fulfil his clients’ needs in interior designs while adding own ideas and perspective to this job.

“Everyday is a hustle. I am overworked and usually very busy,” says Tomasz, known also for his incredible design of the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjarvi, Sweden. “I constantly crave for creative challenges. For ten years I have been participating, among other artists, in building and designing Ice Hotel and this experience was always metaphysical to me. Before I believed that the piece of art must last to exist. It’s different with this project. Artists’ works simply melt down after a few months and flow into the river turning full circle and creating a platform for new creative work,” he explains. True piece of art that is necessary to enjoy in that present moment.

Are you curious how one can get from the interior designs back to the roots and paint and draw again? Tomasz’s story is really inspiring: “At the beginning of the pandemic I read Winston Churchill’s biography to find out that he had painted landscapes everyday until his last days. I realised that for fifteen years I have not drawn anything for my personal pleasure,” he says.

Tomasz got back to the source of his fascination with drawing. Even during his school years Tomasz was portraying kids in the park for his own joy and for a small fee. “As far as I remember portraits have always seemed to me the highest form of drawing. However in the last year I created dozens of portraits and gave them to my friends and colleagues as a gift,” he explains what has been making him happy for the past months.

“Drawing gives me immeasurable pleasure, it allows me to disconnect from reality.”

In his artwork, Tomasz enjoys working with KOH-I-NOOR soft pastels. We are glad he loves to create with our brand because his play with colours and strokes is extremely inspiring.

“I experiment a lot and observe the evolution of my drawing. I am also grasping the idea that each finished portrait, an interior design or an ice room is a form of self-portrait. That’s because we, artists, all wish to be immortal in our creations.”

Drawing for the creating itself is a very refreshing act during which Tomasz is not concerned with its market value or even recognition from the point of view of the model. “I admire Witkacy’s work, a master of pastel portraits from the interwar period who himself was told by his father that art was cheap as far as the means of production were concerned. If you have a pencil and a piece of paper, you are good to go,” he says and we couldn't agree more.