Sometimes I am ashamed to work in stone because nature is a better artist than I am

The “Pygmalion” Art Colony has always been open on the lavender plantations in Tamnjanica since 2016. 115 artists from all over the world have passed through this open-air studio, although the most numerous are those who come from the Balkans.

From the very beginning of Pygmalion’s work, there is also Petar Hranueli, an artist from Croatia, who is currently exhibiting figures of a slightly smaller format that are ready for the exhibition that follows in the coming weeks.

Petar Hranueli has been creating in Serbia for the last 15 yearshas been in the colony since its foundation, his works of white stone – sculptures, adorn the lavender fields in Tamnjanica near Bela Palanka.

“We have been hanging out here on this estate for six years now. This place where we create means a lot to us. In the field you have more sculptures by artists from Macedonia, Slovenia from the entire region. This is how we spread Balkan art. When you come here you get inspiration, because in nature you are enriched spiritually. You feel divine here, all these mountains and all the beauty… sometimes I feel ashamed that I work in stone when nature is a better artist than me,” Hranueli told Niške Vesti.

He brings the stone he uses to make sculptures from Macedonia, although he would prefer the stone to be from here.

All the works of all the artists will remain here in Tamnjanica forever, and Hranueli comments that he is not afraid that someone will take those works away from here.

“It’s a couple of tons of stone, it all stays here, whoever wants to move it,” says this artist with a smile.

Artists from all over the world, although most of them are from the Balkans, stay here during the year and create works of art, sculptures – Gorazd Čuk, the owner of the farm, came up with this idea.

“We have been in Tamnjanica since 2016 and in all these years we have hosted 115 artists from all over the world. They taught us to create their works, a picture, a statue or a photograph so that they like it and not the masses. That’s why we make products that we like first, and then we look for customers who will like what we do. We are aware that we are on this unpleasant terrain where a serious industry cannot be built, so we have to work a little harder, says Čuk and adds that he will not give up on his mission to produce only top brandies because his target group is demanding customers who know how to recognize quality. .

During the promotion of the new sculptures, it was also promoted the new brand of this plantation “Grandma’s secret”.

Čuk, the owner of the plantation and House of Artists “Pygmalion” says that with the new product they will continue to break into the market under the slogan “We create art”. The new brand has labels that are hand-painted with watercolors, so they are closer to art and, as its creators state, “another detail that it is not just serial production.”