Edition 6

 

A subjective painterly map of the region as an image recording the emotions and associations of students – that was the goal set by the youth at the Bydgoszcz art school, carrying out a project awarded in a competition.

 

In the project, it is very important for students to experience the creative process. The idea of a painting workshop, so popular among students, is an example of the value of creating artworks using analog methods in contrast to the flood of digital art. We promote traditional painting workshops. Such an experience reflects the emotions of students and serves health prevention purposes. I invite you to our painterly mapping of the region – says Sebastian Tucholski, the teacher leading the project.

 

The project implementation began on September 2, 2024, with a lecture by art historian Prof. Wojciech Kieler, during the inauguration of the 2024/2025 school year, on landscape painting 'The Great Little Master of Plein Air' about Louis-Eugène Boudin – Claude Monet's teacher.

 

On September 18, 2024, a meeting with the project participants was held. The leading teacher discussed the project's assumptions, started a conversation about potential locations for outdoor sessions, and a discussion regarding the way of spending funds on art materials. A preliminary action plan emerged. A few days later, on September 24, 2024, the leading teacher organized a meeting with the project participants regarding preparations before the first outdoor session. The students were provided with school plein air easels. A series of autumn outdoor sessions began: September 30 - painting session in the central park in Bydgoszcz, October 15 - session on Młyńska Island, October 17 - session in Kazimierz Wielki Park, October 18 - evening session on Gdańska Street in Bydgoszcz, October 25 - session on Jerzy Sulima-Kamiński Bridge, October 29 - session on Młyńska Island.

 

On November 18-20, preparations for the first off-site workshop began: assembling looms, stretching canvases, gluing, and priming the panels.

 

 

 

 

The process of applying glue to the painting surface.

 

 

From November 24 to 28, a painting workshop took place in Kaźmierzewo. Students worked, adjusting their work schedule to their individual capabilities. A significant number of students had late breakfasts, and started their outdoor work as early as 7:00 a.m. The next work period was between breakfast and lunch, from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. After lunch, due to the early setting sun, outdoor work was not possible, so students began painting portraits from life. Every day at 7:30 p.m., the supervising teacher, Sebastian Tucholski, conducted yoga classes for those interested. From 8:00 p.m., the school counselor, Alina Sitkowska, held mindfulness workshops – exercises to develop the ability to focus attention on what is happening at the moment around us, as well as in our body and mind.

 

 

 

 

 

Mindfulness training conducted by educator Alina Sitkowska.

 

 

Exercise "chocolate cube." Place a piece of chocolate on your tongue. Do not bite it. For a moment, observe the sensations that appear. Pay attention to how your salivary glands react, what happens with your tongue. Such exercises can be used as stimuli for more mindful eating of meals on a daily basis - gives an example, pedagogue Alina Sitkowska.

 

 

 

 

Participants of the outdoor event with supervisors Alina Sitkowska and Sebastian Tucholski.

 

 

The students took part in the 'Jacobson Autogenic Training.' It involves tensing and relaxing specific muscle groups. It effectively combats the unpleasant feeling of stress. The exercise is performed while simultaneously controlling breathing.

The youth worked on conscious diaphragmatic breathing and already know that proper diaphragmatic breathing ensures adequate oxygenation of all organs in the body.

 

 

Painting can be an excellent form of meditation. Focusing on the creative process itself allows one to calm down and provides an opportunity to organize thoughts. The scents and natural sounds of the surroundings present in the outdoors will help relax, and consequently – to notice more, to experience with the senses, to gather new memories associated with the places that surround us. The physicality of experiences – harsh conditions outdoors create circumstances for cooperation, promote integration, and build bonds. Working outdoors is also an interaction with the local community, an exchange of observations, sharing stories, mutual help - Sebastian Tucholski, teacher.

 

 

During the outdoor workshop, the teacher also took care of face yoga sessions. It was a form of relaxation combined with diaphragmatic breathing exercises. Its regular practice positively affects relaxation, oxygenation, and strengthening of the muscles around the face, improves well-being, and blood circulation.

 

 

The project involved working on one's own emotions, trying to notice them, and writing them down. However, I did not require students to publish these reflections after each outdoor workshop. I did, however, require them to do it at least once during the entire workshop and another time when publishing the catalog. Due to differences in the personalities and experiences of the participants, each of these tasks will be fulfilled in its own way and at different times - which is completely understandable. Sharing emotions is difficult, says Sebastian Tucholski, a teacher.

 

The plein air event was concluded with a post-plein air exhibition in the conference hall of the Janowicki Manor in Kaźmierzewo.

 

 

 

 

Post-residency exhibition at the Janowicki Manor in Kaźmierzewo.

 

 

The youth participated in workshops at the Regional Museum in Bydgoszcz focusing on the compositional and coloristic study of paintings from the exhibition 'Jan Stanisławski and Students from the Collection of Wanda and Leonard Pietraszak'.

The students became familiar with the current contents of the school library and with new publications purchased with funds from the grant.

 

 

In January, February, April, May, and June 2025, young people participated in one-day urban outdoor workshops. In March, the students chose a new location for the offsite workshop - Barbarka near Toruń. It is a forest settlement and a popular recreational spot located in the northwestern part of Toruń. Barbarka is known for its beautiful forest areas, health and educational trails, as well as the activities of the Forest School. During the workshop, the youth took part in workshops with a pedagogue and a psychologist.

 

 

 

 

From March 23 to 27, 2025, a painting workshop took place at Barbarka in Toruń.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On June 25, 2025, the final of the project took place at the school. The Bydgoszcz Art School approached the competition task "Map at a one-to-one scale" in a very original way, namely by presenting a subjective painted map of the region closest to the students, as part of the project implementation.

 

 

 

 

 

The instructor Sebastian Tucholski, teaching drawing and painting, along with the students: Sebastian Zieliński, Tymofii Podiakon, Antoni Olszewski, Debora Trzaska, Tamara Zielińska, Michał Pawłowski, Agata Grzyb, Jaśmina Szymczak, Weronika Kotlarek, Dominik Rolirad, Tymoteusz Chlebowski, Julia Glazińska, Mateusz Martek, set themselves a very ambitious challenge of creating a map through the experience and practice of plein air painting, which under school conditions occurs rarely, but is an experience of great value in art education.

 

 

 

 

Wiesława Giedrojć from the Starak Family Foundation met with the youth.

 

 

I am glad that I had the opportunity to co-create with such talented, inspiring and creative talented people. I had the opportunity to share with the students my vision of what I would like education to look like. No pressure, evaluations and bells. Instead, with care for the working atmosphere, cooperation and mutual support - says Sebastian Tucholski, who worked and created in the plein-airs - not as an evaluator, but hand in hand with his students.

 

 

 

 

Congratulations to the youth from Joanna Wiśniewska-Kośmider, the director of PLSP in Bydgoszcz.

 

 

Plein air painting is very demanding. The artist faces the challenges of weather conditions, changing light, and it requires attention, focus, as well as special organization and logistics. At the beginning of the project, Prof. Wojciech Kieler, an art historian, introduced young people to the specifics of plein air painting with a lecture titled 'The Great Master of Plein Air Louis Eugene Boudin – Teacher of Claude Monet'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The students enthusiastically joined the project, and during its implementation, a larger number of participants than anticipated in the project came forward.

The supervising teacher gave the students great freedom in choosing the topic, work format, technique, and time. In this way, the participants felt freedom and agency in their activities. In the event of the teacher's unavailability or illness, the students organized themselves into small 2-3 person groups to carry out city plein airs. During the project, two off-site plein airs took place in Kaźmierzewo and Barbarka near Toruń.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During these meetings, in which the whole group participated, the leading teacher introduced additional classes aimed at influencing the well-being of young creators, to open them up and prepare them for the creative process in conditions completely different from the school workshop. Yoga classes and daily mindfulness training conducted by pedagogue Alina Sitkowska proved to be extremely useful and effective in the process of students' mental development.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to the trip, I developed not only manual skills but also learned to cope better with problems… I recommend the combination of art, psychology, and contact with nature to anyone looking for a way to relax, grow, and rest, says Tymoteusz Chlebowski, a student participating in the project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The students appreciated how valuable the opportunity to work in a team using the project method is. They tried very hard to make the most of the time spent together. When conditions did not allow them to paint outdoors, they painted portraits of each other.

 

 

 

 

 

In our conversation, they repeatedly emphasized the extraordinary value of the project as an experience of something completely different, an experiment, a change in approach to the very aspect of creation, and as a result, opening students to a new way of thinking about practicing art.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I believe that every painting carries emotions within it – color, texture, the intensity of the brushstroke – all of this contributes to a unique message. For me, each work is not only a visual creation but also a record of experiences, thoughts, and states of mind that accompanied me at the moment of creation, says Antoni Olszewski, a student participating in the project.

 

We have noticed that the students and the teacher came away from the project with a desire to practice landscape painting from nature in their private time. Now they take brushes, paints, and easels with them when traveling to the mountains or the sea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Students of the Bydgoszcz art school have not had their final say in the project. In 2025, the works were handed over to the Psychological Therapeutic and Research Center of the University Hospital No. 2 named after Dr. Jan Biziel in Bydgoszcz. In June 2025, the project group went on another outdoor workshop in a lavender field. Oh, what "fragrant paintings" these will be! We will surely feel these emotions at the exhibition, to which we invited the students to present their works at the "Wena" Gallery of the Starak Family Foundation in Warsaw in the spring of 2026.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEACHER

 

Sebastian Tucholski, a drawing and painting teacher, supervisor of the Student Council, graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk at the Faculty of Painting. He presents his work on Instagram @sebtuch

Creator of illustrations for independent publishers, made using digital painting techniques. Author of a series of works on Bydgoszcz-themed topics created for the City of Bydgoszcz. Enthusiast of painting from the observation of nature.