BIO
Liba came to Canada in 1970 and has been calling Calgary “home” ever since. After 14 years of working in engineering, she had a serious car accident followed quickly by a family tragedy. These events led her away from engineering work and back to school to become a Registered Massage Therapist – which she practices till today.
Her love of sports, competition and outdoor pursuits has taken her to many wonderful places and cultures, worldwide. Yet, she is always glad to return to her beloved Rocky Mountains. To date she has written and published 5 books – a true crime story, a book of outdoor stories from Canada, two books about the Himalayan expeditions in Nepal and a book of her Celtic travels, which took her to Ireland, Scotland and Wales. All books were published in Czech language, in Prague, Czech Republic. All the books feature her own captivating photographs. She also includes hand-drawn maps of remote places that are beyond even Google’s reach.
Permeating all of these activities, is her interest in the Arts. As a teen, she had taken lessons in photography, graphic arts and painting, always taking technique seriously. At that time, she was introduced to pencil and ink drawing, linocut, collage and watercolour. While photography plays a big part in her books. some time ago she returned to painting. Starting again with watercolour, she returned to her first passion of oils.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT
Painting allows us to go to places where other activities won’t go. We can explore minute nuances of light and hues of colours and create a wide scale of moods. We can go to the land of dreams and make-believes. Or we can choose to stay in reality and absorb what Mother Nature so generously gifted us with – be it the drama of the high mountains or the peace of a quiet grove, a soft forest path, the magic of water or the rich colours of flowers – the possibilities are endless. We can choose between the black and white of rock and snow or a subtle interplay of textures in the Japanese Zen Garden. We can be ‘us”, as we feel, free in spirit.
Our concentration on these aspects removes the rush, hustle and bustle of our every-day world. The disturbances get side-lined. Our focus on painting makes the other things unimportant. For me, it is cleansing of the mental clutter. Balance of colours and spaces, the mood of the scene on one hand, has logic, on the other hand engages the creative half of our brain.
A painting is free of burden of learning another language, yet it is able to speak to all of us.

www.libacunnings.com