Peter Sukosd is from Budapest and comes from a talented family of artists. Painting since he was six years old, this phenomenal painter has had his work exhibited all over Europe. What we love most about his art? He’s not afraid to show color and emotion in his work. But don’t take our word for it. Read our interview with him and check out his work for yourself.

PM: How would you introduce yourself to our readers?

PS: My name is Peter Sukosd, I am a Hungarian painter who already had several exhibitions, mainly abroad, in Copenhagen, Prague and Florence for example. Some of my paintings were used as book illustrations and the reproductions of my painting the “Grove of Petrin in Prague” are now in the rooms of The Hilton Hotel, Prague.

PM: How long have you been painting?

PS: I have been painting since I could distinguish the different colors, and this is not an exaggeration. As far as I remember, I was six when I received my first linoleum plate, to which I could do whittlings and I was full of joy.

I think this was the very first time I, being so new to this, faced the creative urge inside me and also realized the joy of creating something new.

Later this thing evolved, and I started to work on copperplate printings and also did some lithographs when I got to the world of pastel, oil pastel and then the acrylic.

By trying out new techniques, I realized that visual art, and painting can only shelter me from the sometimes painful, happenings of the outside world, since I could only create my ideal and perfect world only through my paintings.

PM: What artists have influenced you, and how?

PS: For my art the most influential painter was Marc Chagall who somehow showed me the way to flout the conventions. I also love the special cozy atmosphere of his paintings, which radically grab you out of reality. Because of the gleaming light on almost all his paintings you really have the impression that you view the world through a baroque rose-window. This play of light is what I would like to develop in my art.

PM: How would you describe yourself as a painter?

PS: I would say that I am an experimenting painter, who is trying to be independent from all prevailing art trends and relying only on his inside world.

The feelings I illustrate on the canvas can vary on the scale of the moods, by reaching the peak point of them and then sliding down gradually to depression and emotional deepness itself. This conflict is what I always try to visualize on my paintings, and this also shows that every feeling is a mixture of its opposite, and thus you can never find reconciliation in them, you can just accept their existence as they are.

This acquiescence and reconciliation to this fact makes my paintings that solid every time, after illustrating all the possible limits of the human emotions in one circle, limiting it to the canvas itself. Finally as related to the methods I paint let me just say that I am only the tool of the feelings I want to highlight and the painting is the best way for me to do it, consequently I play only a minor role in the whole process, where the impressions take the main role.

PM: Do you ever experience self-doubt being an artist?

PS: Of course, all the time. Actually I cannot imagine myself without this feeling, my opinion is that the vainglory makes you blind to what you originally wanted to tell with your paintings. Whenever I start a new painting, I am the most vulnerable and insecure person on the Earth, who of course doubts being capable of illustrating everything he planned before. My experience is that I can only get through this feeling with the process of painting. After a while the message of my painting takes the leading role and prevails over the fear and doubt in me.

PM: What effect does your work have on other people?

PS: That is a very good question that I don’t really have a proper answer to. I can only rely on the notes left on my webpage’s message board.

My experience is that most of the people explore some kind of beauty in them, there are also some who definitely feel inconvenient when watching them, and they somehow feel attacked by the selected theme, the harsh colors and the strong contours. One thing is sure: most of the time my paintings manage to push into the aura of the viewers.

PM: What motivates your or inspires you?

PS: Anything, either objects of specific shape or a feeling, or simply a composition could inspire me. As for the motivation, it is inside me all the time, the only thing I lack is the energy factor, since after finishing a painting, I simply cannot take myself to start a new one, because of the mental exhaustion I often feel when giving birth to a new painting. It simply takes too much out of me, this is why I consider all of them as my ‘babies’.

PM: I love your circus series. What was your inspiration for that?

PS: I really love the surrealistic and somehow abstract themes. As for the so-called circus series I tried to find a subject that is in a way dreamland like, meanwhile people can also explore it in their everyday life…For me it is like an isolated and vivid island in the grey sea of the everyday and monotonous happenings.

In a way painting means the same for me: the mixture of the touchable, natural world and the indefinable inside world. Both of them reflect to the other.

As for the circus itself, it means an inner, unapproachable mystical world to me that somehow symbolizes my personality and the meaning of painting. To me painting means an ivory tower, which always offers a shelter from all the rising tides of the outside world. I balance myself on the top of this ivory tower like the ropedancer on my painting, which is trying to keep her on the rope against all the shadows trying to drag her down.

PM: Which series is your favorite, and why? Do you have a favorite painting?

PS: I think my favorites are the circus series because of the above-mentioned reasons and the moods series because of the personally experienced conflicts that I tried to put on the paper.

I cannot choose one favorite painting, since they are all the part of a bigger set. They create a contribution to the final message I would like to transmit with my paintings.

Meanwhile there are some paintings, which are somehow pretty close to my soul; these are the ‘Butterflies of the Trapeze’, the ‘Swinging Woman’, the ‘Rope-dancer’ and also ‘Delirium’.

PM: Any “last” words?

PS: My intention is to show more bravery in the future, either in the subject-matter of paintings or in the way I am actually creating them.

I am planning to continue the way I started with circus series: to find new harmonies through the usage of, at first sight, not matching colors, shapes.

I would also like to preserve the special contradiction in my paintings by giving them a devotional background with the rose window-like play of light and meanwhile illustrating a profane and sometimes erotic theme.

To see more of Peter Sukosd’s work or learn more about him, please visit his website at http://www.petersukosd.com

Priscilla Lalisse moved to Paris from New York City in 1999. In addition to being the Editor and Founder of Prissy Mag, she is the author of the novel STOCKDALE . For her complete bio, please click here.

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