Mural painted for the 10th edition of ArtWalk Festival in Patras, Greece. This piece is a continuation of my Flea Market series, and it was largely improvised on the spot — the composition kept evolving as soon as I saw the wall I’d be painting. Thankfully, I always carry around one terabyte of reference photos I’ve taken over the last five years, so I had plenty of material to build a composition that fit the space. Big thanks to Artwalk for the invitation and for extending my stay so I could finish the mural as intended. The weather turned against me halfway through the process and washed away some of the earlier painted parts, but in the end, everything came together as planned. Also, a huge thank you to all the wonderful volunteers for the company and laughs along the way.
Over the past year, I've had the privilege of traveling, painting, and capturing the process along the way. This video documents my first trip of 2024, taking you behind the scenes of the mural I painted for the DUK Festival in Čačak, Serbia.
In the video, I wanted to capture the scenery of the local flea market, as the mural's subject is the famous flea market in my hometown of Zagreb.
Filming my travels and mural projects has become essential to my process. It allows me to reflect on the work, the challenges, and the small moments that make each piece unique. Editing all the footage takes time, and, as they say, many of the cool shots end up on the cutting room floor. However, as I continue developing my filming and editing style, I might eventually create more extended versions of my travels and painting process.
I want to emphasize that my goal isn’t to become a YouTuber or anything like that. Painting large-scale murals is challenging enough, but having good process footage to look back on—especially editing it during the cold days—helps me stay in a creative mindset and motivates me to keep working.
Watch the full video here.
The mural titled "Browsing" features two scenes and marks a slight shift in my style and approach—something I had been eager to explore for some time and finally had the opportunity to do so. The first scene is inspired by the view you encounter every Sunday while walking toward Hrelić, where many people sell old items along the embankment that runs parallel to the market. In contrast, the second scene depicts items you might find while browsing. I sometimes buy things like this for drawings and small studies, just for fun.
While I’m happier with some parts than others, I’ve stopped viewing my work as a "finished product" and now see it as an opportunity to experiment and try something new each time.
I guess it took me a bit longer than I anticipated to write a new post about my projects and everything related to my art.
Balancing jobs/commission work and the projects I'm passionate about can be pretty challenging, as they all demand a significant amount of creative and physical energy and time. This year, however, I finally managed to get back on track, exploring new directions and themes in my personal work while also taking on some exciting projects on the commercial side.
Back in 2019, I started taking photos at my local flea market—mostly portrait shots that I later used for sketches and studies in my studio. I started blending a journalistic approach, using photo references of spontaneous scenes I’ve captured, with artistic compositions crafted in my studio, all within a representational figurative style, creating a dynamic contrast between documentary and creative expression.
For some reason, I’m fascinated by human expressions, faces, and poses, and the Hrelić flea market offers an incredible setting to capture them. There’s just something unique about Balkan features and the rawness in people's interactions.
Looking at my work up to 2020, I realized there was no unifying theme tying them together. Moving forward, my focus is to build a body of work with deeper personal meaning, exploring different variations of specific themes and styles.
"Figures"
Runaway Festival, Belgrade, Serbia
"Sentiment"
Street Arts Festival, Mostar, B&H
"Browsing"
DUK Festival, Čačak, Serbia
"Along the Embankment"
Grenoble Street Art Fest
Grenoble, France
For those interested in the commissioned projects I mentioned earlier, feel free to check out the Instagram profile WALLZ COLLECTIVE, where you can explore some of the recent murals realized in collaboration with partners.
Finally, the new season of painting outdoors has arrived.
This is a cropped image of the first day's progress.
I'm trying a different approach this time by doing an underpainting and solving the light and shapes monochromatically first ( because I have more time than usual to finish).
The mural is organized by Pučko Otvoreno Učilište-Zabok, and the wall is on the building of the Regeneracija factory.
I didn't want to do a release date / online event for the now available prints since it's mostly "older" reproduced works. Once I start working on a new series of murals and studio works, there will be a release date for every future print and a limited time to purchase it for a special price.
Since I'm writing about printmaking, it's good to mention my old ( not used much, so basically new) printing press for woodcut and intaglio that's been quietly waiting for me to clean it up and fall in love with it again...
Well, I also finally managed to find out some new techniques for transferring digital sketches on a board or a lino, so the plan for this winter is set. 💪
“Polupani Lončići”
In Croatian, that would mean something like smashed or broken pots.
This phrase would be used in our childhood game known as hide and seek. During the game, if you saw someone snitching, not counting correctly, calling out the wrong name, pretending to have not been seen and called out, simply cheating, or in other words, not playing by the rules, you or some of your playmates would have to yell "POLUPANI LONČIĆI"
The phrase would symbolize the end of the unfair or crooked game. It would also mean a reset, a new start for a fair and just game.
I also started filming and editing my own painting process, so here is my first ever "serious" video.
Subscribe to the channel for more future videos, from now on I'll try to do this for every project.
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