Painting > New Work-- 2019-2024

A woman swimming
oil on canvas
31 x 37 inches
2023
a couch covered in a blanket of snow
oil on canvas
25 x 32 inches
2023
a man in a window at night
oil on canvas
33 x 25 inches
2023
Birthday
oil on canvas
23 x 15 inches
November 2023
Four chocolate frosted donuts in a grease stained box
oil on canvas
15 x 19 inches
2023
Three teen girls waiting at a transit hub
oil on canvas
36 x 30 inches
2023
A woman walking down a hallway in a bathrobe
oil on canvas
32 x 24 inches
2023
a naked woman looking in a steamy mirror in which she has written the word "yes"
oil on canvas
22 x 14 inches
2023
a pair of glasses
oil on canvas
14 x 22 inches
2023
a painting of a red toothbrush
oil on canvas
18 x 29 inches
2023
A man seen through a window at night eating noodles
oil on canvas
32 x 24 inches
2023
Melted ice cream cake, Gwendolyn Zabicki, painting
oil on canvas
24 x 32 inches
2023
A man shaving, Gwendolyn Zabicki, painting
oil on canvas
28 x 18 inches
2022
a woman blow drying her hair in a bathroom
oil on canvas
30 x 30 inches
2022
A bathroom window at night, Chicago painting, women painting, Gwendolyn Zabicki
oil on canvas
36 x 30 inches
2022
A balding man watching sports on tv at night as seen through a window
oil on canvas
48 x 36 inches
2023
Shadows of leaves on windows at night, Chicago painting, Gwendolyn Zabicki
oil on canvas
48 x 36 inches
2022
a stick of butter with a knife
oil on canvas
15 x 21 inches
2022
A woman wearing a blue mask sitting in the window
oil on canvas
16 x 18 inches
2022
A naked woman doing a cartwheel as seen through dark wooden pocket doors
oil on canvas
16 x 8 inches
2022
A blue door at night
oil on canvas
15 x 10 inches
2022
A woman napping under a white blanket
oil on canvas
24 x 36 inches
2022
a woman napping
oil on canvas
48 x 60 inches
2022
A man napping
oil on canvas
32 x 24 inches
2022
a baby napping
oil on canvas
18 x 28 inches
2022
A child at the top of a hill on a sled
oil on canvas
28 x 18 inches
2022
Footprints in the snow
oil on canvas
27 x 18 inches
2022
Gwendolyn Zabicki painting girl in winter window daughter art artist Chicago
oil on canvas
16 x 10 inches
2021
Woman Pushing a Stroller in the Street, snow, Gwendolyn Zabicki
oil on canvas
27 x 18 inches
2021
Gwendolyn Zabicki painting Lost Delivery Man Winter snow Chicago art artist
oil on canvas
20 x 16 inches
2021
Gwendolyn Zabicki Man Walking a Dog in the snow Winter Chicago
oil on canvas
46 x 34 inches
2021
Gwendolyn Zabicki Man Holding a Mask Winter snow Chicago art artist
oil on canvas
16 x 14 inches
2021
Gwendolyn Zabicki, Jogger in the snow, painting, Chicago artist
oil on canvas
21 x 14 inches
2021
Gwendolyn Zabicki, Student with a backpack in the snow, painting, Chicago artist
oil on canvas
16 x 8 inches
2021
Gwendolyn Zabicki, Walker in a red coat in the snow, painting, Chicago artist
oil on canvas
13 x 7 inches
2021
Gwendolyn Zabicki woman walking a dog in Chicago winter snow art artist
oil on canvas
14 x 17 inches
2021
Man Walking a Dog in the Snow, Gwendolyn Zabicki, painting, artist, Chicago
oil on canvas
10 x 15 inches
2021
Gwendolyn Zabicki, A Soft Man, painting, Chicago artist
oil on canvas
21 x 14 inches
2021
Gwendolyn Zabicki naked baby pool painting
oil on canvas
9 x 12 inches
2020
Gwendolyn Zabicki painting woman in the window
oil on canvas
14 x 11 inches
2020
Gwendolyn Zabicki painting neighbors pool
oil on canvas
14 x 16 inches
2020
Gwendolyn Zabicki painting sunlight on a door
oil on canvas
14 x 11 inches
2020
Gwendolyn Zabicki painting pandemic fantasy restaurant breakfast
oil on canvas
20 x 16 inches
2020
Gwendolyn Zabicki, Gwen Zabicki, painter, artist, Chicago, paintings, self portrait
oil on canvas
28 x 21 inches
2019
Gwendolyn Zabicki, Gwen Zabicki, painter, artist, Chicago, paintings, doors, best place to cry is in the shower
oil on canvas
both 24 x 12 inches
2020
Gwendolyn Zabicki, Gwen Zabicki, painter, artist, Chicago, paintings, two shadows, two curators, Shadows on a Shunsuke Imai Painting
oil on canvas
14 x 18 inches
2019
Gwendolyn Zabicki, Gwen Zabicki, painter, artist, Chicago, paintings, man holding the door
oil on canvas
17 x 14.5 inches
2019
Gwendolyn Zabicki, Gwen Zabicki, painter, artist, Chicago, paintings, Gray Lady
oil on canvas
18 x 22 inches
2019
Gwendolyn Zabicki, Gwen Zabicki, painter, artist, Chicago, paintings, open door Berlin
oil on canvas
16 x 9.5 inches
2019
Gwendolyn Zabicki, Gwen Zabicki, painter, artist, Chicago, paintings, bride
oil on canvas
31 x 24 inches
2019
Gwendolyn Zabicki, Gwen Zabicki, painter, artist, Chicago, paintings, hypnic jerk, sleep start, startled awake
oil on canvas
16 x 22 inches
2019
Gwendolyn Zabicki, Gwen Zabicki, painter, artist, Chicago, paintings, rainy flight
oil on canvas
14 x 17 inches
2019
Gwendolyn Zabicki, Gwen Zabicki, painter, artist, Chicago, paintings, Two Women, sunlight
oil on canvas
16 x 14 inches
2019
Gwendolyn Zabicki, Gwen Zabicki, painter, artist, Chicago, paintings, book in sunlight, Jane Hirshfield poem, In A Room With Many Windows
oil on canvas
20 x 20 inches
2019

Motherhood is paradoxically a very lonely time, but also a period when you can't get enough time to yourself. Bathroom breaks are the only breaks you can get and other times you don't even get to pee by yourself. My paintings explore where thoughts go during that break. With a newborn, your only thoughts are about the baby. All higher level thinking stops. But slowly, your identity returns to you-- desires, plans, the urge to learn piano, your sense of humor, the things that make you, you. It's only after the absence of those thoughts, that we realize how tenuous our identities actually are.

The brief, flickering thoughts that come and go so quickly between so many other things have become the subject of my work. Sam Anderson wrote, “How many fleeting associations combine to make up a life? How many rusty pipes do we mistake for owls? A vast majority of our waking hours are filled not with witty jokes or brilliant thoughts or epic feelings but with tiny, private mind-motions — thoughts that are hardly even thoughts at all, that don’t rise to the level of sharing with another human being. That millisecond when — again and again — a rusty pipe looks like an owl, or a newscaster’s voice reminds you of a long-gone uncle, or a daily routine sets off a small chain of involuntary associations. These things are almost nothing, and yet they are who we are.” These uncatchable, ghostly thoughts are almost impossible to notice and then adequately describe-- the perfect shadows of two curators on a wall; the dog walker I looked forward to seeing from my window during a snowbound quarantine; that gray lady on a smoke break, seen over a decade ago, blending in with three gray columns; startling myself awake from a nap because I thought I was falling. The act of painting these fleeting thoughts is an attempt to capture a nearly invisible, but very large part of being alive.