The Day's Work - Paintings of C. Litka: May 2011

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Spring Along the Orchard Road (Rev)

Minor revision: added the people on an oriental scale: dwarfed by nature. The original was a little too empty without them.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Spring Along the Orchard Road

Another cold and gloomy spring day around here, so I might as well paint. I was tempted to paint over yesterday's Fenlyn Bay painting, but decided that it was too enigmatic to paint over, as in 'why would anyone bother to paint a few tufts of grass, blue hills and half a dozen seagulls?' sort of enigmatic. I think I'll just consider it a 'challenging' piece.

As for this piece, I was thinking of a stand of I think silver poplars along the bike trail that had that white-ish blue green look to them in bud when I started, but I rather strayed from that idea as I went along. Oh well.

18x24' 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard

Friday, May 13, 2011

Spring Sands, Fenlyn Bay

I wanted a nice airy piece for today's second work. We've had a few very nice spring days this week , so I've been in the yard and on my bike and not painting. Needed to catch up to my 2-a-week minimum budget for painting. Had a number of different ideas on what to put below the sky and this is the one I ended up with. A very simple painting, but that's what I was in the mood for.

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard

Feather Boats, Three Lovers Archipelago

Likely the last of the little series. Clearly run out of ideas. Parts of this piece where once parts of a larger 2x4' 60x120cm piece that I thought I could do, but decided that it wasn't going to work. I need big ideas to fill a big space, and I don't see any point in scaling up smaller ideas, since I'm not in the over the sofa art market.

12x24" 30x60cm acrylic on hardboard

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Butterfly Boats at a Market Landing

A second scene from the Archipelago of the Three Lovers.

12x24" 30x60cm acrylic on hardboard

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Butterfly Boat Amongst the Floating Islands

Painting impressionistic fantasy scenes is petty iffy, at best. With impressionist painting you're rather counting on your viewer knowing just what it is you're painting and from that basis appreciating (hopefully) how you've treated that subject. In the case of a fantasy painting like this one, the viewer isn't familiar with the vision I'm using as a basis to paint impressionistically, so they're likely to be very confused by it. I've decided that that's okay.

12x24" 30x60cm acrylic on hardboard

Lost in the Woods

I've long since left the bank of realistic painting, but I've no great desire to reach the far bank of pure abstract painting, so here's were I'm at. Basically foliage abstracted. I had no other idea in mind.

12x16" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard

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