The Day's Work - Paintings of C. Litka: November 2014

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Painting a day so far

All 6x8" 15x20 cm acrylic on hardboard

Just doing one small painting a day to try to get back in the swing of things. The last two are more or less the same scene, just using different sized brushes.

Saturday, November 15, 2014

New Work

Paddock with Sheep 18x24" 45x60cm

Autumn Idea 12x16" 30x40cm

Untitled 6x8" 15x20cm

It's been the better part of nine months since I last painted anything and I'm not really all fired up about it even now. No new ideas. But our six month long winter has arrived and I've time on my hands so I think I'll give painting a go. It is, however, a hard go. I'd hoped to have some new ideas; ways to do things or at least new motifs, but sadly that isn't the case. Rather discouraging. However nothing will get done unless you do something, so I'm going to paint a piece a day and see what if anything develops. I'm going to make it easy though and just do small pieces like the last two on this post... We'll see.

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, November 18, 2014

Painting a day so far

Saturday, November 15, 2014

New Work

Hello!

What I'm Up To

Followers

Blog Archive

About Me