Along the Coast

11x15 

acrylic on 140 lb paper

Working from a sketch, from a snapshot I took on the coast, I used a limited palette to achieve some low key tonality. I wanted to give the feeling of some unsettled ocean weather patterns that one would see forming near the shoreline. In the distance is a lighthouse on point, and overhead, some sky patterns that look to be forming dynamic weather patterns. 

I love the sea because of this drama that sometimes unfolds. Its a living dynamic force and a pleasure to watch and translate onto my canvas. 

Sailboats on lake in the Berkshire Hills 

11x15 

acrylic on 140 lb paper

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Done on location a few days ago from a place I like to paint from. Located next to a lakeside restaurant  and if I get hungry I can always go grab a bite to eat or get a coffee. They have this dock at the end of the parking lot, where tourist who stay on the other side of the lake can boat over, to eat here. This is the finished painting, looking south from my vantage point.

Quiet Cove Refuge 

11x15 

acrylic on 140 lb archival paper

From a quick snapshot, to a sketch to an paining. Thats how this evolved. One of my favorite places along the northeast coast is Cape Cod. I love the tranquil scenes and subject matter. This painting is one of many I have produced from that area.

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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"