Based in Kaunas, Lithuania, Violeta Jarašiūnienė creates art under the name ViJa Art. Her lifelong devotion to painting has deepened over the years, as she gradually honed her skills with canvas and paints. Violeta’s path as an artist began modestly—her debut exhibition took place in 2008 at the community centre in Betygala, located in the Raseiniai district, and subsequently at the Betygala Museum. For about ten years, painting remained a quiet and tentative endeavor, a creative escape woven in with her daily routine. It was during the quarantine period that art reclaimed a central role in her life, sparking new exhibitions in Kaunas (2021), Vilnius (2022), and at the Zanavykiai Museum in Lukši, Raseiniai (2023).
Violeta approaches her work in an intuitive and impulsive manner. She does not plan her compositions in advance but allows her choices of color and emotion to shape the piece as it unfolds. Music is always present while she paints, its rhythms and melodies subtly stirring her brush and influencing the palette. Describing her method, she compares the merging of colors to how experiences, dreams, and emotions blend in life—ever seeking harmony, gentleness, and completeness. Careful attention is given to every section of the canvas, ensuring that no detail, no matter how small, is neglected.
The completed paintings materialize as enigmatic, dreamlike scenes—images that resist description, evoking snippets of a fairy tale or passing daydreams. Each piece functions like an encoded narrative or a secret, inviting those who view it to unravel its mysteries for themselves. Violeta often adds poems or short tales to accompany her art, conceiving of each painting as if it were a book meant to be read and rediscovered again and again. She believes viewers who engage with her work embark on their own journey, searching for hidden meanings and personal discoveries within the layers of each painting.
Violeta invites all to lose themselves in her art, encouraging them to find their own happiness, fears, and dreams within the canvas’ complex details. She likens this experience to stepping into a fairy tale, with the viewer cast as the hero—wandering through scenes shaped by emotion and fantasy, pursuing answers and welcoming self-understanding. Her paintings trace a journey from the past into the present, inviting people to release their sadness and enter a vibrant realm of color, hope, and safety. Through this artistic process, Violeta seeks to kindle moments of awe and connection, transforming art into a magical portal for self-discovery.
About this artwork+
In this ethereal and introspective painting, faint, ghostly faces emerge from a soft, dreamlike background of pastel hues blending into each other—orange, pink, yellow, and hints of blue. The canvas is dominated by a serene, almost transparent wash of colors that suggest both tranquility and mystique. Two subtle yet distinct faces appear: one on the left and another less defined on the right, as if fading in or out of memory. In the foreground, a delicate sapling, perhaps a symbol of new life or hope, grows upwards from what appears to be a cracked surface with fallen autumn leaves scattered around, contributing to a sense of gentle decay and rebirth. Abstract forms and splashes of darker tones near the borders add a layer of depth and complexity, inviting the viewer to ponder the intricate relationship between nature and the human spirit.
