JERZY Lesko had a problem. He and his wife, Sandra, had moved from a spacious, open-plan house in Sydney into a conventional home.
'I was surrounded by bare walls,' said the Polish-born Australian refurbisher of ageing buildings. 'Everywhere I looked there were blank white spaces.' The solution; become an artist. He learned to paint pictures, first to add bits of colour to his home, then, more seriously, as a composer of images.
Today his first Hong Kong exhibition opens, following five sell-out shows in Sydney since his first show three years ago.
'Don't ask me how I do it,' said the blunt-talking construction contractor, now working in Hong Kong for a major building company that renovates apartment and office blocks.
'I don't intellectualise about it. I start off with a blank piece of wood or square of canvas and the images are born.' The results are startling, dramatic pieces of art, magical compositions.
A few months after he began splattering oil paint on canvas, he took his vivid collection to Graphic Arts Gallery in Sydney to be framed. He wanted to cover those bare walls.
