Dragana Skrepnik’s art is dedicated to evoking strong emotions through the canvas-conversations she creates with color. She spent twenty-six years living and traveling through Europe and thus came to be inspired by the works of Matisse, Kandinsky, Kahn, and O’Keefe.
After obtaining a degree in Economics and Business from a European university, she moved to tropical and vivacious New Orleans in 1989 where art became her life. There she met and apprenticed Amber King, a professor of Art History at Tulane University. With King, Dragana painted side by side for more than ten years and studied the masters and the history of art while learning how to understand non-representational art. She has also lived in South and North Carolina’s islands and mountains and now in Arizona’s deserts. Through the years, she has taken art classes, attended inspirational workshops, and seen thousands of works of art across the continental US and Europe.
Abstract painting is her passion because it is more challenging and intriguing, and holds the greater possibility of exploring an emotionally rich life. Her paintings celebrate life through the use of vivid colors, large formats, and non-representational forms that depict her travels and soul-search. Her work is exclusive to oil on canvas, and all pieces share the same abstract style and vivid palette. Yet different inspirations have led her into different subject matters—inner parts of flowers, landscapes, and her own imagination put on canvas.
Dragana creates her art always leaving it to the viewer to connect with the piece. She creates, leaving it to one’s own imagination to finish the conversation with the work.
My paintings are a reflection of my life-long love for color, beauty, and my personal expression of imaginations and dreams. I like to depict the connection between the land and the horizon and to create a special spirit that exists in the moment. Creating abstract expressionist paintings excites me. Moreover, I enjoy creating something that exists in my mind with a technique where I try to get the viewer to play hide and seek with the painting by looking for meaning and emotion behind the abstract forms. I always hope that the paintings will intrigue others. Painting beautiful, colorful flowers up close on a large-scale canvas succeeds in absorbing me completely. My art expresses my soul, my traveling, and all the experiences in my life that have made me who I am and my art what it is. I feel blessed to be able to do what I love and share that with others by evoking optimism, joy and happiness.
Dragana Skrepnik, born in the former Yugoslavia, obtained a degree in Business and Economics in the mid 1980’s. She came to the United States in 1989 and has been painting, exhibiting, and dedicating her time to painting since that time.
Oil painter and printmaker Amber King was her mentor for ten years, and over that time, Dragana studied intensively in Amber’s studio located in Bay St. Louis. During the years Dragana has taken various art classes and attended many inspirational workshops learning different techniques and developing her style. She has always been influenced and inspired by masters such as Kandinsky, Matisse, O’Keeffe and Cezanne.
Since 2000, she has dedicated her time exclusively to art, and has been painting in her home studio in Tucson. Her paintings are mostly done in oil, acrylic, and pastel mediums. She does abstracts, landscapes, still-lives, and Orthodox Icons.
Paintings donated and exibitted at:
- Ara Parseghian Foundation 2002, 2003,2004,2005,2006,2007,2008,2009
- Tucson Medical Center Rock & Rodeo Show , 2006 and 2007
- Kids Chance of Arizona, 2008 silent auction
- Diabetes Foundation 2009
2003-2005 Represented by Wishes Gifts and Gallery
2005 Solo Exhibition- Open Studio Exhibition in artist’s private studio
2006 Tabernacle Baptist Church-Solo Exhibition
2007 , 2008 Oct. 6 – Nov. 10 Contents Interior (juried show)
2007 , Sep. 22- Oct. 13 Dinnerware artist show
2007 , Oct. 13-14 Wishes gift and gallery show (5 artist show)
2008 , Apr. 25-May 9 Espresso Art Café (solo show)
2008 , Jun. 2 – Oct. 24 ABA Gallery solo exhibition
2008 , July, Vila Toscana, Open House Art Show
2008 Nov. 8-9 Tucson Open Studio Tour (Painting chosen to market Open Studio for 2008)
2009, January - Cimmaron Foothills Cimmaron Assotiation
2009, Mar. 14-15 Tucson Open Studio
2009 Nov. Tucson Open Studio
2010 Feb. 6- Mar. 14 Platform Gallery (4 artist show)
2010 Apr. -May Contents gallery (juried show)
2010 Nov.13-14 Tucson Open Art Studios
2010 Dec. Represented by Zimmerman Gallery – Tubac, Arizona
2010 Dec. Represented by QeBonita Gallery – Tucson, Arizona
2011 March – Fresh Paint, Silent auction, University of Arizona, Museum of Art
2011 April 16-17 Tucson Open Studio
2011 September 15-October 15 – Solo exibition LTG Gallery Banja Luka, Bosnia & Herzegovina
2011 October 1. Member “FLUX’ Gallery, Tucson, AZ – Permanent exibition
– Dec. 8 -Dec. 31 FLUX – Small work show
