Coastline Study 9

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Coastline Study 9

Still on the moon light theme. I have used shades of green for night skies in the past, and while not realistic, they seem to work pretty well. As I have mentioned in the past, I consider myself a mere student of painting, and what I am doing is exploring how to paint. I think you have to put in several decades of doing this before you can really master it, and seeing that I'm not even halfway there - with painting in thick paints like oils and acrylic, at any rate - I'm not yet concerned about where I'm at in the process today, or how each painting turns out (as long as it meets certain vague personal standards). I bring this up only because I realize I've painted variations of this scene, a dozen times: justifiable only because, you see, I'm just practicing...

6x8" 15x20cm acrylic on hardboard

2 comments:

UnknownDecember 5, 2012 at 11:08 PM
I think your art is awesome, and I'm always inspired to keep painting when I see one of your pieces.
ReplyDelete
Replies
Charles LitkaDecember 6, 2012 at 11:17 AM
You're one of the select few... which is the way I want it. I'm hoping to postpone fame until I'm dead. So far, so good. Knock on wood. While I'm glad my work inspires you, I hope you're really having a whole lot of fun painting.
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

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

Tuesday, December 4, 2012