Stretched this canvas by hand, and wasn't sure what I was going to do on it. It was last winter, and I was intrigued by the open barren fields just getting their first snow covering of the year. I kind of liked the way a lot of earth colors still peeked out and the bare bones look of the landscape. I did a quick sketch, then headed back to the warmth of the studio to work on this piece where a hot coffee was waiting.  I particularly like the way the colors play out on this painting. Some ochres, pastel blues and pinks, all in a low key palette. Like winter itself. Saying it with less. 

Winter Landscape

                                                                             16 x 20" acrylic on stretched canvas

                                                                              available through: russpotak.etsy.com

I wake up, make coffee, and rummage through my sketch book, or head out to get new sketches. It's certainly not rocket science, nor is it a major preparation process. I just see life and respond to it, in the form of a painting, in whatever way I have to. Impressionist, expressionist, abstract, etc. I don't spend a lot of time planning. I save that for grocery lists. So, I'll see something, or feel something from what I saw or experienced, and just start laying in some lines with paint or just painting randomly trying to formulate my vision. When I get to a certain point, where I feel its said, .. I stop. I am not one of those people who stop after every little facet is completed and accounted for. I don't want that. I want unfinished elements in my work. Its those areas that add mystery, exploration and life to the work. Why should I tell it all? What I leave out is just as important as what I put in. 

So, in this piece, I had gone down to the lake and did a quick pencil sketch... very loose, as to what I felt I wanted to remember in the subject. Then went back to the studio, and just started painting. A line here, a bunch of color there. All semi defined. Thats enough for me. 

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note:  This is just one way I approach my work. Sometimes, I have no idea what I'm going to do. I just start messing around with the canvas to see what develops. Some blue here, a line, yellow, a shape.. and so it begins.