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, the harmonious fluidity of color surfaces, and his atypically large format for watercolor, his works invite us to immerse ourselves in them and temporarily lose ourselves.

In the past year, he has enriched his watercolor works with other media such as ink, acrylics, and pastels, resulting in new works on canvas that will be presented to the public for the first time. His initial inspiration came from urban sketching, where a view is captured in a short time with just a few strokes. Over the years, he has developed this approach as a self-taught artist, discovering color harmonies through the interplay of sketching and watercolor painting. Watercolor, a very fast medium, offered him a formal framework for further exploration. Because watercolor dries quickly, it compels the artist to make swift, bold, or sharp strokes, while water simultaneously ensures softness and a sense of mysticism in each piece.

He was soon drawn to stronger colors and rougher textures, which led him to push watercolor closer to realism while retaining his original fascination with sketching. For him, watercolor represents freedom, where control is unnecessary, since painting with colored water is always unpredictable, even chaotic. His goal is to show that vivid, high-contrast works can emerge from colored water, and that many details are not required for the painting to be understood.

He is interested in contrasts between elements: sharp shapes dissolving into soft ones, dark scenes transforming into light ones, and so on. He draws his main inspiration from the everyday life of city streets in his environment, seeking details in architecture, design, public sculpture, and even in 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 elsewhere. 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. In addition, he presented the solo exhibitions “Azul” at the Youth Center Pekarna and “English Red” at the Čajček teahouse.

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