The Day's Work - Paintings of C. Litka: May 2012

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Falling With a View 3

I've been playing around with this piece for the last two days. It's been cloudy and cool, so I've had lots of time to try this and that, and this is pretty much what remains after most of this and that have been scraped off. It has a bit of urban flavor to it, but I did not have anything actual in mind. It is as pure or an abstraction as I can do. We'll see what I feel about this tomorrow.

18x24" 45x60 cm acrylic on hardboard

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

A Sunrise

Finger painting today. Not a pretty picture, but a picture, which is a bit of an accomplishment these days.

12x16" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Falling With a View 2

Sometimes one's opinion about a painting changes over time. In the case of the original Falling With a View I rather quickly came to dislike it. It was neither realistic, or abstract enough. I wanted it abstract, and with this version painted over the original, I have made it more abstract. We'll see how this effort ages...

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Along the Loch Road

This piece started out as an outlined landscape, but it was too stiff and boring, so I just painted over the outline, changing a few things as I went along. More color than I usually use, and I'm not all that sure I like it all that much.

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Falling, With a View

Making a map can be fun, a place all your own. Making a map by painting is rather awkward, but my approach was to make it a map-like abstract rather than a painting of the land from a height. Mostly I was just goofing around again.

18x24" 45x60cm 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