Irena Fusek-Forosiewicz (née Świeżyńska) was born in Oharewicze, Congress Poland (now Belarus) in 1910. A soprano and co-founder of the Silesian Opera, she moved to England in 1958 after meeting painter Władysław Fusek-Forosiewicz. Encouraged by him, she turned to painting in her late fifties, developing a lyrical, colourist style rooted in Polish post-impressionist traditions.
Artist Irena Fusek-Forosiewicz (neé Świeżyńska) was born in Oharewicze, Congress Poland (now Belarus) on 4 August 1910, spending her her childhood on the family estate in the Polesie region. She was educated by Ursuline nuns in Kraków, where she discovered her love for music. She later studied singing with the renowned Polish opera singer Adam Didur. In the early 1930s, she enrolled at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW), first in the Horticulture Department and then the Agricultural Faculty. Though it is unclear whether she graduated, her education reflected the expectations of a cultured landowning family in pre-war Poland. In 1937, she married cavalry officer Stanisław Kuczyński, who was later killed by the Soviets, likely during the Katyn Massacre in 1940. During the Second World War, she remained in occupied Warsaw, surviving harsh conditions. After the war, she moved to Bytom in Upper Silesia, where she became one of the co-founders of the newly established Silesian Opera, remaining there until 1958 as a soprano and building a local reputation.
In 1958, she travelled to Scotland to visit relatives and decided to remain in Britain after meeting Polish painter Władysław Fusek-Forosiewicz, a respected graduate of the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, known for his colourist portraits and landscapes. They married and settled in Parham Park, West Sussex, in a country estate surrounded by woods and an Elizabethan stately home. Living in the peaceful English countryside and immersed in her husband’s artistic milieu, she discovered a new creative calling in her late fifties. With her husband’s encouragement, she enrolled in the Studio of Easel Painting (Studium Malarstwa Sztalugowego), led by fellow Polish émigré, Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, in London. Founded in 1947 under the patronage of the Polish University Abroad (PUNO), the studio provided rigorous training grounded in Polish modernist traditions. Bohusz-Szyszko’s pedagogical approach focused on developing the student’s unique artistic vision, rather than imposing stylistic models, and he considered colour to be the central element in painting. Under his mentorship, and with her husband’s support, Fusek-Forosiewicz cultivated a new visual language of her own. Fusek-Forosoewocz was naturalised in 1964, her entry in The Gazette describing her as a 'cook, house keeper'.
Fusek-Forosiewicz received her diploma in 1974, but having made her public debut in 1970 at the Congress of Polish Science and Culture Abroad, where her painting was included in a major group exhibition of Polish émigré artists. Her first solo show took place in 1977 at the Polish Social and Cultural Centre (POSK) at Hammersmith, west London. It was a resounding success, both critically and commercially—five works were sold and the exhibition received praise in the Polish press. Bohusz-Szyszko, in particular, described her colour sensitivity as exemplary and saw in her story the common phenomenon among émigré Poles of a late-life change in vocation (Kotłowski 1997). From then on, she was an active member of the Association of Polish Artists in Great Britain (APA) and participated in numerous group exhibitions, including the important 1995 Forma i kolor show held at POSK during the Third Congress of Polish Culture Abroad. She also showed at the Centaur Gallery, run by fellow Pole, Jan Wieliczko. She and her husband often painted together on extended summer trips to Spain, especially near Gandía in the Valencian region, bringing back vibrant landscape works. Her own exhibitions continued in both Britain and Poland, including solo shows in Warsaw, Gniezno, and Toruń.
Stylistically, her work evolved initially from her husband’s colourist technique to a more personal expression, marked by softer, lyrical harmonies. Critics noted her subtle tonal transitions—particularly in grey, cobalt, and celadon—and her intuitive, unplanned composition process. Her paintings are rooted in the post-impressionist and Polish colourist tradition (kapizm), with references to intimacy and domesticity. Her subjects include still lifes, interiors, portraits, and landscapes—especially those seen through open windows or flooded with Mediterranean sunlight. Some works, such as Na drodze do Cordoby (On the Road to Córdoba) or Plantacje pomarańczy (Orange Plantations), exemplify her ability to render atmospheric effects through misty light, warm palettes, and unusual tonal contrasts. She also experimented with compositional structures influenced by Japanese printmaking and Art Nouveau, and explored the relationship between colour and mood with bolder brushstrokes and colour patches, as seen in Błękitne wzgórze (Blue Hill) or Popołudnie na tarasie (Afternoon on the Terrace). Her approach remained consistently traditional, loyal to a quiet and contemplative vision of painting. As she once expressed, nature was her ‘inexhaustible source of inspiration and the best artistic control’ (as cited in Kotłowski 1997).
After her exhibition in Warsaw’s Kordegarda gallery in 1990, Fusek-Forosiewicz gifted 30 paintings to Wspólnota Polska in Rzeszów. Over 30 works are held by the Polish Institute in London, and after her 1997 solo exhibition in Toruń, 20 paintings entered the Nicolaus Copernicus University Library collection. Irena Fusek-Forosiewicz died in Penrhos, Wales, in 2002. Her work is not currently represented in UK public collections.