The starting point for these three paintings was a task at ASP Kraków – the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. The requirement was simple: make a series of three paintings in which a chair appeared as a recurring motif.

The most obvious solution would have been to paint three studies of chairs. I was more interested in using the assignment as a framework rather than allowing it to dictate the subject. I therefore chose the historic interiors of Moniak Manor in Janowiec, where chairs naturally belong to the rooms and could appear repeatedly without becoming the centre of every composition.

Three rooms, one recurring element

The series consists of three 24 × 30 cm oil paintings: The Study, The Dining Room and The Drawing Room. Each room has a different colour structure, different objects and a different rhythm, while the repeated presence of the chair creates continuity between the works.

The Study

The first painting is built around the quieter, darker atmosphere of the study. Muted green walls, old furniture and collected objects form an enclosed interior in which the chair becomes one element among many. What interested me was the relationship between the furniture, the wall and the stillness of the room rather than an isolated portrait of an object.

The Dining Room

The dining room has a stronger vertical structure. A tall antique clock dominates the composition, accompanied by a small chair and the modest decorative details of the room. The chair is clearly present, fulfilling the idea that connects the series, but visually it remains secondary to the character of the interior itself.

The Drawing Room

The third interior is more decorative and open in character. A gramophone, mirror, paintings, a large plant and upholstered furniture create a denser arrangement of shapes and colours. Here again the chair participates in the composition without taking control of it.

Painting the interior rather than the assignment

What I still like about this solution is that the required motif remains visible without becoming a limitation. The chair connects the works, while the real subjects are space, atmosphere, colour, old furniture and the character of a historic manor interior.

The paintings are therefore related, but they do not function as three versions of the same composition. Each room has enough individuality to exist as an independent painting.

From an ASP Kraków exercise to a small independent series

The three Moniak Manor paintings began with an academic task, but their final form is much more personal than the original exercise. Instead of painting the required object directly, I used it to establish continuity and then concentrated on the rooms themselves.

Years later, I still find the interiors interesting precisely because the assignment is almost invisible. A viewer does not need to know that the series began with a chair. The paintings work first as images of three quiet rooms in an old Polish manor.