Rebeka Lukošus’ self-imposed rule means her work has to be sincere and funny

Many creatives impose rules on themselves to maintain a level of consistency in their word, and Rebeka Lukošus is no exception. “I have a rule for myself as an artist,” she tells It’s Nice That, “my works have to be sincere and funny. And I love details. Sincere and funny details.”

In her own unique way, using pastels, Rebeka skilfully creates textured shadows full of intricacies, from a disgruntled facial expression to the crinkles in a dress or flecks on the wallpaper. Drawing is a key part of her creative process and is “forever ongoing,” an act of impulsion for her. “Sometimes I feel that I have to draw in that very moment. In a way, it is like taking pictures but cooler because I can choose what I want to highlight and hide what is not so important.”

The immediacy in her pictures is evident through the energetic line. The control of the oil pastel goes between free movement and dense blocks of colour depending on Rebeka’s intended tone. “For me, there is nothing more interesting or more important than people. To notice all the small still lives that people create without even know it – wow.”

An example of this is when Rebeka visited a flea market in Porto and illustrated what the people were selling. “I could never imagine such a strange combination of things that they were creating unconsciously, I was so amazed.” She remembers how one seller had “two shorts neatly arranged on a carpet next to a pile of I don’t even know what.” Rebeka’s interests lie in the random combination of colours and shapes that appear between the blankets the sellers’ place their goods on, and the contrasting backgrounds. She closely observes all these different elements in her mind and translates the details onto paper into beautiful combinations at a later date.

In other work, Rebeka has illustrated quite a few different stories written by other people, and would like to turn her hand at writing her own narrative soon. She intends to explore the theme of waiting, as she rightly expresses “we are always waiting for so many things at the same time.” As she writes to us from her native Latvia, she adds that at that moment, she’s waiting for a multitude of things: spring to come, water to start boiling, and her cousin’s wedding which she is very much looking forward to!