Sunrise on the Ganges

Friday, May 10, 2013

Sunrise on the Ganges

It's one thing to cross oceans, seas and deserts high in the clouds in a racing cloudship, but it would be a waste to cross the vast Maratha Confederacy lost high in the clouds. So I left the Anjer at Bombay and took passage on the Empire Mail Cloud Prince, seen here at anchor. The Cloud Prince is floater type of airship that cruises only several hundred feet off the ground making it much easier to see India. This is a study of sunrise in Varanasi on the Ganges.

I'm not really a painter of postcard scenery (obviously), so I suspect that this type of scene is a deal end, but I've been sketching it all week, so I thought I might as well give it a go.

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard

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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, May 10, 2013