About The Artist

Michal Straska was born 1980, in a small town situated in the downhill of mountains the Little Carpathians - Smolenice, in Slovakia. He now lives and produce alternately in his childhood village Horne Oresany or in Bratislava the capital city of Slovakia. He is not long time interested in art. His first drawings, better said sketches, came from studies at university (1998-2003). But as he got employed after school, there was no time to refine his artistic talent. In November 2009, six years after finishing studies, the occasion suddenly came. One day in the job a beautiful girl named Veronika had a look at his sketches. Even though his drafts were not so well, she asked him to draw her. This offer took him by surprise, while he had not been drawing for six years. After a few seconds boggling he eventually agreed. The final portrait pleased him not at all. But Veronika was very happy and enjoyed it a lot. This reaction amazed him and consequently he decided to draw next drawing for himself. It was Bill Cosby. He was astonished with the progress comparing it with the previous portrait. He drew then next one - Hugh Laurie. And since that time Michal has drawn till nowadays. As he started with the drawing, he began to be more and more interested in drawing's techniques too. During the drawing career Michal tried more styles till he found the best fit for him. His teachers have been: reading drawing's manuals, watching tutorials on different web sites, participating in many art communities and the main teacher - drawing practice. Although his initial career was characteristic only with portraits, nowadays he also draws different types of sceneries with many hard to drawn textures (e.g. snow, water, glass, chrome). His artworks are distinctive with the effect of depth, which gives to his drawings 3D effect and also more realistic impact on a viewer. Awards, publications an exhibitions Sep 2014 : Announcing winers for the book Stroke of Genius 7 May 2015: "Gallery Award" - 2015 International Art Grand Price Competition in Taipei Oct 2015: Published edition Strokes of Genius 7, Michal's artwork "Recycling" was placed also on the cover of the publication Apr 2016: Exhibition Art Revolution Taipei 2016 Jun 2016: Honorable Mention with artwork "Staying on the right place" in "Drawing 2" - International Fine Art Competition in USA Dec 2016 Exhibition - art fair Spektrum Miami 2016 Apr 2017 Exhibition - art fair Art Revolution Taipei 2017