How to recognise a good artist? The eternal question with no easy answer to it. We could debate on technique and the level of realism and original concepts all we like, but beyond the narrow frames of the elitist academic jargon, it all comes down to the individual observer. Does an image make your heart skip a beat when you see it? Do you feel a sudden warmth flowing through you, a smile widening on your face? You have a good artist’s work in front of you.
No matter if they’re professionally educated or self-taught, great artists have that rare skill to brighten your day with a few specks of colour. Meet Lili Gluić, a Split-born artist who used to live abroad for a while, a part of her heart always staying anchored in Dalmatia. Gluić is a versatile master: she does book illustrations, is good at photography, and has a fondness for miniatures.
Take, for example, these endearing watercolours, these little windows into everyday life on the coast. Cats patiently waiting on the waterfront to see if they can snatch some sardines once the fishermen return home. Old masters of traditional crafts sewing fishing nets. Grandmas and grandpas enjoying some down-time in a tiny patch of shade under a fig tree. You can almost feel the heavy Dalmatian heat pressing on you, hear the crickets. All of that, a whole unique world lying in a few blobs of gentle, almost transparent colours. Look away, and the scenes will dissolve, so light and soft they’re only clinging to paper as long as you have your gaze fixed on the surface.
If you’re lucky enough to be staying in Split in the coming weeks, Gluić is opening an exhibition on August 21 in the Diocletian’s Gallery. The collection on display is dedicated to the artist’s hometown, bearing a wonderful poetic title whose core meaning doesn’t fully translate – ‘oh bird, choose a slice of sky above my town’. The exhibition stays open until September 13, 2017; if you get a chance, visit the gallery and enjoy the art work created with colour, spirit, and a good dose of love for the sea.
Galerija Dioklecijan, Dioklecijanova ulica 4, Split
All images are property of Lili Gluić.
