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Just recently, I stopped in to one of my favorite coffee shop/restaurant to have a coffee. There was this incredible eye popping expressive art on the walls. It appeared that it was a solo exhibit as the paintings were all by the same person. I couldn't help to stare over peoples shoulders and tables to get a better look. I spent almost forty five minutes going through the works, looking at them, and looking again. I was liking what I saw. Good solid expressionist work. Stunning. It caught my eye as soon as I walked into the establishment. Like a shining sun.

Then it struck me. Kind of like, the feeling you might get as if you were a ghost, and no one could see me, or notice how I was awestruck and gawking around with my laser like focused eyes. Here I was, going from table to table, craning my neck to see the works, and almost knocking someone off a stool to do so, and yet nothing. Like I'm invisible. I was almost hoping someone would say, oh, "I noticed you were looking at these paintings" .. and start a conversation about them.

I went back to my table, and just viewed the work from afar, just admiring it. I must have been in there an hour. People coming, eating, talking, texting, cell phones ringing, on lap tops, on Ipads you name it. I took very careful observations. Very careful. Because something was not right. Something caught my attention and I needed to make sure I wasn't wrong on this. And here it is.

Not one single person ever looked up to see the artwork. Not one. No one. Not a soul. Totally obliviousness. Even though it hung right over there heads, and was practically in their face. Here was this dynamic art, obviously done by a very accomplished artist. The life and soul, the guts and honesty, all there on canvas. And no one cares. It too was invisible to these crowds of people. Might as well have been ghost images. Work hanging in vain. For it was the proverbial saying come true. "What if a tree falls in a forest, and there's no around to hear it. Does it make any sound?" Perhaps blindness is not just a physical affliction.

I returned to my studio, proceeded to pick up my brush but had a hard time shaking that experience. And, I think made it a little harder to maintain my motivation to paint, or at least for the time being.

How sad. How very sad.

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Walking along the Creek in the Winter

About 9x9"

acrylic on paper

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This was from a photo, sketch combination of a place nearby here, where I occasionally walk. Sometimes some of my best subjects are just outside the door. Usually a familiar place, memory, mood, or even a dream can produce enough information for a finished painting.

Painting just for paintings sake, despite the subject is also something I like. Just pushing the paint around is enough. Doesn't really matter what turns up on the canvas, just so long as it happened. With art, you never know.

One day this, one day that, .. and the possibilities seem to be endless.

I particularly like this painting. I have my reasons, and as an artist, it may or may not make sense to the viewer.

Sometimes I feel the need to understate. Many of my paintings though, are what I would consider complete to most viewers. But its a fine line between enough information, and too much. In this piece, I didn't want to make evident everything with a clarity of definition to the viewer. Rather, I wanted the mood and overall composition to capture the senses. An ocean side cottage? Perhaps an Inn? .. or beach houses. I don't know, and I really don't care. Sailboats in the distance? Yes. That's pretty evident. An ocean of blue and some sandy bluffs or dunes and beach grass. Its a feeling that I want, not a pictorial account and depiction. I could have taken the suggestion thing, even further, but that is for another painting. Maybe at some point, I'll remove all traces of visual identity and just let the eye assemble the image in the mind.

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"Seascape with Cottages"

7 1/2 x 11"

acrylic on archival paper

russ potak

Sometimes a painting is just a painting. No message. No complex underlying compositional equations, .. and no deciphering meanings.

Sailboat in a tidal pond, is just such an example. I did this last year, and it is really nothing more than a place in my mind, derived from a place I was at, and translated into this painting. I thought it a pleasant scene at the time, and thats all I needed to convey it. Sailboat lazily being pushed by a gentle breeze into this backwater pond on a soft and splendid day.

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acrylic on canvas

16 x 20"

Early this morning as I opened the shades in the studio, I watched the morning light change and create patterns against the woods and fields. I was about to run and get the camera, but then I thought, why photograph something you already have seen. Why not translate this experience into a painting?

The camera is never going to be able to put the feel and drama of the moment into something that is 60% visual and 40% experiential. Its that 40% that counts. Its what goes on in the mind and hearts eye. Its the guts of the moment of awe. A camera would have recorded it, and yes, you can fudge around with it a manipulate it with photoshop, but, I like to keep my hands and flesh on the controls as much as possible, and forego the techno-control over the final statement. Thats one of the reasons, I paint. Its the human element that has the last say. It was me that said it, and did it. So later, I took out the sketch book, put it down, and later I painted it. Its a painting. Its not a photograph.

This is it.

11x15

acrylic on paper

Sunrise patterns, against the woods and field.

A Painting? An Illustration? Who cares?

Sometimes subjects just come from something I feel like translating into an image. Its not like the other works in the sense that I'm working the elements of color, and shapes for the sole sake of a finished piece. When there is specific images that are being tossed around, its more of like,.. how do I say this, and still incorporated the basic elements to make it work and make it interesting.

More along the lines of an artistic illustration, than anything.

At least for me, that's how it is.

I find I become bored quicker if my work tends to fall into too much information. So when I do something like this, I try to find ways to keep my interest level up. That might be using colors to my advantage, or shapes to created movement. These kind of works come and go in between my other more art for art creations.

But, nonetheless, I find that somehow they fall into place nicely anyway.

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In Flight

16x20

acrylic on canvas

Just outside, not more than a stones throw away from where I gaze out from the place where I paint, some people call a studio, and I call a room that takes on the appearance of a studio, .. lies these hills.

They constantly change in light and color with the seasons and are more revealed in the winter months. I have done a number of paintings from this exact vantage point many times now, and you have probably noticed a similarity in subject matter if you have been following my paintings. That is because they are. The subject is the same, only the lighting and the seasons change. How convenient for me. These hills and mountains pose permanently for my canvas.

This one in particular I especially like, because I incorporated a stressed surface resulting in a texture that adds an extra interest to the overall work. Its simply called Winter Landscape. Its on a 16x20 stretched canvas and has a light coat of varnish over it. Sometimes, the subjects for an artist are no further away than the back door.

You can find this original piece listed for sale on my Etsy gallery page . russpotak.etsy.com

I'll try to post some other paintings from this location soon, so you can see and compare the way I handled the subjects.