This is the kind of painting that tells a story. I was looking at one of the photos I took during a Maine coastline visit, and started to once again feel the sea air, the sound of the gulls and the creek of wooden vessels against the docks. I began to experience and feel it once again, and aimed to convey that with my paint. Not tell you how the photographed looked, but rather how it felt to be there. This is how I approach subjects. I need to impress the feelings of how the subject affected me onto the canvas. What I don't attempt, is to reiterate the obvious. 

  So this painting tells of the sea, the sky the fishing boats and the vitality of the goings on, in this active little harbor. I used the paint  freely and energetically to channel these feeling through. 

  I hope you too, can feel the moment here in this salty cove via my painting. 

11x14"
acrylic on 140 lb paper
Maine Harbor Docks
russpotak.etsy.com

8x10
acrylic on canvas panel
available at: russpotak.etsy.com

I didn't really know how this piece would evolve. It was the process of making art as I go along. One thing leads to another, and another, then, .. you stand back, then get back to it,  and keep at it until what you have, is something you want to keep.  Thats how this one started and finished. Just doing art. No nets, no wires. Just paint, and a blank canvas. 

Woodland Autumn
9x12" on panel mounted on a 12x16 eggshell white backing
mixed medium
Overall presentation is 12 x 16"
This work has a wood cradle behind it and hangs without a frame
It will hang offset from the wall by 3/4" to give it dimension.
Available at:  russpotak.etsy.com

Started something new. Not sure I know all the reasons why I paint this way, or that way. I do know that at times I need to get into my work in a different way. Like paint wasn't enough for what I wanted to say in this piece. I needed more medium. I am beginning to realize that everything can be used to "paint" with, and the expression of a work shouldn't be limited by the "way", or the "method". Sometimes paint is enough. Sometimes its not. I needed more this time. Next time, maybe not. Art does not follow "rules". Its abhors them. Its one of those things, that the more you try to restrain it, the more it wants its freedom. Kind of like people, I guess. Anyway, I grabbed glue, modeling medium, wood, paint and whatever, in this piece. It said what I needed. And, I was content with it when it was finished. What will I do next? Thats the beauty of it. I never really know what will come off the easel. 

Last night I had one of those moments. The kind where you feel totally lost, not really knowing even if you really know how or why you should paint. Like, what's the point. Been here, done that. Its in my head, so why do I have to actually put it on canvas. I know I can. It would just be wasting paint. Why not just savor the fact that I can if I want, but I'm not going to paint. I rebelled and tried to resist against having to actually say anything on canvas. "I'm an artist, I can do what I want" , I said.. .. but wait, ... maybe I'm chickening out here. Maybe I'm afraid I forgot how to be spontaneous. Maybe, because I don't have any tangible subject matter to rely on, I am trying to worm out of something I may fail at doing.  
  About that time, I got really pissed at myself for thinking like an amateur first year student. Then I realized, its doesn't mean anything. Paint, don't paint. I can if I want, or not. There is no bad art, there is just art that didn't happen because you didn't want it to. 
So, with that thought in my head, .. I decided to start the process. With the first brushstroke it broke the doubt. I felt absolute certainty that I would paint despite my resistant mood. It was as if,  the more I painted, the more that voice saying I cannot, got weaker and weaker, and faded into my artistic furor that now dominated my everything of the moment. It was total rejection of that idiot voice of doubt. 
 Now that I look back at it, I realize my getting pissed, is what pushed me on. I rebelled against uncertainty and I parted company with it. Wether the work I did is good, bad, or ugly, I could care less. It was the fact that I did it despite my mood. Mood does not dictate when I paint. I do. 
Anyway, .. here's the piece. 

There's a place I go sometimes to sit, doodle, drink coffee. Its called "Juice n' Java". I just happen to doodle my way into a pen and ink sketch one day of the table in front of me. When I got back to my place where I paint, (formerly known as a studio) I transferred it onto canvas. I followed up on this theme, by painting various coffee shops around the county. The exhibit of the originals spanned the area as they showed from town to town, coffee house to coffee house. Some of the paintings are long gone now, but I do have prints of these to remember them by. And, I still go to that same place to doodle and have my coffee. And, now as I sit in this cafe having my cup of joe, I can look up on the wall, and see this very image framed on the wall, just above where I sit. How cool is that? 

The Coffee House
8x10 Signed print from original painting
available at:   russpotak.etsy.com

A place I might have been, a remembered walk along an early winter road, or an impression that lasted long enough for me to paint it. All of the above probably played a part in this painting. 
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Its not about the representation, its about interpretation. 
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To say something with a way in which it hasn't been said. To reveal. Art should tell us something that isn't obvious. It uncovers nuances and lets us peer under the veneer of life. 
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Not all paintings speak to people equally. Some hear nothing, some more, and some a lot. 
That is the way of art. 

Early Winter on a Rural Road
5x7"
acrylic on canvas

see my work at: russpotak.etsy.com

So not having any idea of what I'm going to paint, I just take this paper, cut it to a size, and affix it to a board on my easel. 
  Then I get out some colors, mostly some primaries and started to put down some red, then blue, in a random fashion. I began to see a form, abstract in shape, but nevertheless a diverse form. So I went with that. I got to a point where it congealed to an interesting subject. Once I saw that it was of interest to me,
I left it alone to live. 

Paintings don't need finish, they need to take root in their own way. Once the work begins to live, its a fragile thing.  I hate it when I persist in getting in the last word on an already evolved piece.  Restraint from dabbling is necessary at this point, unless the intent is to dabble. 
Anyway, I called it,          
 "Configurations"
 8x8 inches
 acrylic on paper

Winter on Cheshire Lake
8x10
acrylic on canvas panel
$100
russpotak.etsy.com

Living near a lake in the Berkshires, has it stellar moments. Like when the ice fisherman are out on the lake as well as some ice skaters too. The low sun in the afternoon creates some beautiful patterns on the snow and ice. The mountains deepen in shadows and the sky turns a salmon pink and orange. This is my interpretation of that moment of the day as I was there sipping on my coffee.

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.

This is a piece I did a year or so ago, maybe longer, but it reflects some of the things I sometimes strive for in making a statement in color, shapes and interpretation of a subject. I often, move back and forth in my work. Sometimes, more traditional impressionism, and sometimes on the verge of abstract expressionism. Whatever works. In this painting, I just wanted to incorporate a busy, lively, twist and turn little city with a lot of activity and angles, lines and shapes. 

Its an 11x14 on a panel 

and done with acrylics, paper, gel medium, glue, and whatever. 

Acrylic on paper

5x5" 

Shoreline 

Keeping the brush moving in this piece was very important so as not to let it bog down in a tired execution. I want the paint to live and not be diminished in any way. Overworking can make a fine looking crafted painting, but thats not my art. This is my art. I hope I can keep the two separate. 

"Road to the Other Side", 8x10" acrylic on canvas, signed lower left

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This is a rather somber little piece I did from a view just outside my studio, looking north up the road as it ascends up a slight rise. Nothing unusual in subject matter, ... and rather ordinary. But, I like its non importance although,  I decided it was important enough to paint.

High Seas

8x8" acrylic on paper

for sale

$100

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