Road Over the Hills

Friday, September 24, 2010

Road Over the Hills

I painted this piece over yesterday's painting. I probably won't try painting over this board again...but then again... The thing is that having painted around a 1,000 paintings I really don't need a lot of uninspired pieces laying around, especially since I can no longer claim them as 'early works'...

12x16" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard

1 comment:

Conni TögelOctober 9, 2010 at 1:19 PM
Hi Chuck,
hope things are going well for you...
I miss seeing your work on ArtByUs.com - still looking for some smaller pieces to go with the few I bought there a while back.

Is this one still available?
you can email me at ctogel at mac dottie com
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What I'm Up To

I think artist’s statements are largely needless. Paintings speak for themselves. And yet, here I am set to rattle on about my approach to painting. Now, if you're of the same opinion as I claim to be, skip this and enjoy the paintings, but if you want a hint as to what I’m trying to do, here’s the words.

I approach painting via two different roads that arrive at the same place. The first is that I paint only “studies” or sketches. Back in the day artists painted quick studies to get the colors and features down to use as a guide to paint a finished studio painting. Funny thing is of the paintings I’ve seen together with their studies, I’ve always preferred the loose and spontaneous studies over the stiff and polished finished painting. For that reason I’ve chosen to paint only studies.

My second approach to painting is inspired by a quote from the writer, Raymond Chandler: “I guess maybe there are two types of writers, writers who write stories and writers who write writing.” He considered himself of one of the latter, as do I which is to say; writers who’s words are entertaining in and of themselves, independent of the story. Perhaps painters could be divided the same way: Painters who paint pictures and painters who paint paintings. While I don’t consider one type superior to the other, I aim to be a painter of paintings. I want to paint paintings that capture a moment, inspire or recall a memory or mood, but which, viewed longer or closer, or with one's glasses on, prove to be clearly paintings: paint brushed into shapes on a surface. That these mere shapes can create an impression they’re something else, for a moment, or at a distance is the independent interest I would like my paintings to possess, not because they realistically reproduce branches, or water or what ever, but because they don’t. What I don't want to paint is places or post card scenes, even though landscape are the medium which I use for my painting.

The Day's Work - Paintings of C. Litka

Friday, September 24, 2010