Emilija Pasagic is a native of Belgrade in the former Yugoslavia. Formally educated in landscape architecture, she worked in Europe for several years. She arrived in Canada in 1993 and settled in Toronto, where she and her family continue to live.

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Emilija had always drawn and painted, but the settlement in Canada sparked an artistic rejuvenation. Early works include paintings on silk and an intense series of abstracted fruits and figures. She became involved in the vibrant Toronto art scene, joining "The Scollard Street Artistic Cooperative" and "VAO" (Visual Arts Ontario).

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Her technique involves a unique blending of bee’s wax and oil paint applied to paper, board or canvas. In this contemporary reference to the ancient technique of encaustic, the paint is sometimes blended into the hot wax, burnt into it or simply painted upon it. Careful layering and scratching is used to accent the texture.

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The resulting tones are the yellows and oranges of Spain and Morocco and the olives and crimsons of the Mediterranean. The happy placement of flowers and fruits seemingly narrate life’s journeys. They tell stories of being together or apart and of creating identity.

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The intensity and drama of relationships between people and emotions inspire Emilija. Her paintings are an outlet, a way of showing pain and love in a medium that doesn’t invoke either sharing with the viewer her memories. When asked how she chooses her subjects Emilija replied “My tulips and dancing fruit (my people) choose me, either they want to be painted or they don’t”.

 

Emilija likens her work to that of a composer, translating her visions onto the canvas as sort of a symphony for the soul. In her mind, painting can be based on a single brush stroke as long as that stroke contains emotion. She shares the beauty and passion that she sees in the world around her, through the interactions of her tulips and the melodic infusion of her colors.