Visual artist and watercolorist Tilen Pepevnik is fascinated by color structures, their textures, and the materiality of the watercolor technique, which he skillfully combines with line drawing in a relaxed sketching style. In his unique style, he creates spontaneous, atmospheric genre images of vistas and marinas, which he sufficiently concretizes with the skillful use of line drawing. Straddling the ephemeral and the concrete, his works evoke painted memories of places and moments that we may have personally experienced due to their familiar motifs. Supported by expressive warmth and the harmonious fluidity of color surfaces and his atypically large format for watercolor, his works invite us to immerse ourselves and temporarily lose ourselves in them.

In the past year, he has enhanced his watercolor works with other media such as inks, acrylics, and pastels, leading to new works on canvas that will be presented to the public for the first time. His initial inspiration came from the technique of urban sketching, where with a few strokes in a short time, one captures their view. Over the years, he has developed this sketching technique as a self-taught artist, discovering color harmonies through the interplay of sketching and watercolor painting. Watercolor, being a very rapid painting technique, offered him a formal framework on which he continued his exploration. In watercolor painting, the color dries quickly, compelling the artist to make swift, large, or sharp strokes, while water ensures softness and mysticism in each piece.

He was quickly drawn to stronger colors and rough textures, leading him to bring watercolors closer to realism, mixed with his initial fascination with sketching. For the artist, watercolor painting represents freedom, where control is completely unnecessary, as painting with colored water is always unpredictable, even chaotic. The artist’s goal is to show that from colored water, a vivid and contrasting work can emerge, where many details are not needed to understand the painting.

He is interested in the contrasts between elements; sharp shapes blending into soft ones, dark images transforming into light ones, etc. He draws his main inspiration from the everyday life of city streets in his environment, seeking details in architecture, design, public sculpture, even trash and streetlights. As he says, “The streets are the energy that connects all the details, allowing us to experience the city in its true spirit.”

Throughout his artistic journey, Tilen Pepevnik has participated in various group exhibitions in Slovenska Bistrica, Maribor, Bogenšperk Castle, Oplotnica, Slovenske Konjice, Celje, and more. He also took part in the 2022 festival “Skuštrane in bradati” (Tousled and Bearded), where he exhibited together with artist Meta Mežan as part of the Artopolis Pop-Up Cafe project at Kavenija in Maribor, and presented solo exhibitions “Azul” at the Youth Center Pekarna and “English Red” at the teahouse Čajček.

He has attended many art colonies and workshops, where he gained his initial knowledge of watercolor, then continued his path as a self-taught artist. He also enjoys passing on his knowledge in the form of watercolor painting workshops, which he has been conducting regularly since 2019. He also likes to share his painting techniques online and on social media, where he posts painting processes, techniques, and demonstrations.