Peter Baczek

Artist Statement:

Urban landscapes capture what we all create in our environment.  Throughout our lives we modify our living and working space to fit our needs.  We are constantly surrounded by an ever changing landscape of mood and color that I capture in various media.

Urban landscapes have always been a part of my vision.  After years of working almost exclusively within the intaglio process, I have concentrated on using painting, monotype, and pastel to resolve images more readily than by etching alone.

My recent work has manifested a change in my interpretation of these compositions.  While my early work reflected an emphasis on light and texture, my most recent offerings depict a determined attempt to alter my view of reality and introduce another dimension to my vision.

I choose to depict cityscapes through a more refined interpretation of the composition before me.  The broad mass of walls, roads, or skies establish areas of color and light that can create a certain mood, and act as compositional components in the overall work of art.  By expanding my use of color through various media, the finished works grow in both scope and spectrum to better realize that vision.

Born in Webster, Massachusetts, 1945.  Peter Baczek came to the Bay Area in 1962, and received his B.A. in Art from San Jose State University in 1970.  Moving to San Francisco in 1975, he began etching at the Fort Mason Art Center, where a fascination developed with the urban landscapes around him. He lives in  Oakland, and has a studio in Bekeley.  Baczek has received awards in numerous national and international print competitions, is represented in many private, corporate and university collections,  the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, the Brooklyn and Tucson Museums of Art.