Painter Jacek Yerka was born in a small city in Northern Poland in the early 1950s. His developing years were spent playing amidst the wonderfully preserved architecture of medieval Europe, as his hometown was spared much of the bombing that beset Poland during the war. It is this environment of reddish brown brickwork that immediately calls to mind the works of Bosch and Brueghel, whose palette Yerka shares.

Yerka studied art at University, before rebelling against the trend to paint with less attention to realism and detail. Instead, he found his education studying the works of the Northern European masters like the Van Eycks, Dierck Bouts, Robert Campin, Bosch, and surrealists such as Magritte.

"I did my first painting of my life a year before going to college, where I began studying graphics. My instructors always tried to get me to paint in the more contemporary abstract style, and move away from my fascination with realism. I saw this as an attempt to stifle my own creative style and steadfastly refused to fall in line. Eventually, my teachers relented."

Yerka's carefully rendered paintings (acrylics on canvas) are filled with images from the artist's childhood, one heavily influenced by the surroundings of his home during the 1950's, and his grandmother's kitchen, wherein he spent much of his time. Odd little beasts, and wonderfully whimsical landscapes are the hallmarks of Yerka's delightful works.