The Baltic – Our Sea, 2020
acrylic on canvas, 130 × 100 cm

“It’s not the turquoise-dark-blue sea in Cádiz nor the bright-blue Adriatic; it’s not the warm Mediterranean either or the crystal clear water off Malta. It’s the Baltic Sea, where the water is murky and is grey-green. But though the waters of the Baltic do not draw tourists because they are cold, the Baltic is unique on a world scale. On all sides, it is surrounded by land, which is why it is called Northern Europe’s inland sea. It is also the most recent of the seas of the Atlantic Ocean and the least salty sea in the world. The low salinity means that many species of animals, fish, and plants live in the Baltic.

This exceptional and mysterious sea enchants with its palette of colours, taking on various hues – from bright blue through steel-grey to green. Its depths hold the wrecks of more than a hundred ships, and around the Bay of Gdańsk and the Vistula Spit are the biggest Polish mines for Baltic gold, that is for amber. The biggest piece of amber found hitherto, so-called Burma Amber, weighs 15.25 kg and is in the British Museum in London.”

SEA EU Maritime Universities
in the Paintings of Aneta Oniszczuk-Jastrząbek, Gdańsk 2022