DAN’S PAPERS
Page 22 April 11, 2014
danspapers.com
This Week’s Cover Artist: Michael Kotasek This week’s cover, “The Lobsterman” by Michael Kotasek, celebrates our local heritage and the hardworking men who have farmed the sea’s bounty for generations. The large oil is expressive, moody with an eerie, peach-colored light. But the painting used to look different, once featuring conifers, rocks and a blue sky where the stark, orange emptiness now lives. Kotasek rarely feels a painting is complete—it is fluid and changing, like the waters he so often paints. “The Lobsterman,” has changed since the first time you “finished” it. Can you explain? Initially I did it as a watercolor. Then decided to take it further and do a large oil painting. It was more prosaic looking. The face was somewhat crudely done. It sat around in the studio in that state for probably more than a year before I got back to it. Also, the overall color scheme has changed. The painting became a self-portrait. How did that come about. In a sense, they all are [self-portraits]. It wasn’t so much intended to be a self-portrait as it was a situation where I used myself as a model. When I did the oil painting, the model I
had used for the watercolor wasn’t available, so I put my face in instead.
The obvious influences are painters Andrew and Jamie Wyeth, Edward Hopper, Winslow Homer, Bo Bartlett. But I’m also a big fan of Lucien Freud, Vincent Desiderio, Julio Larraz, John Currin, Jenny Saville and Rembrandt.
You’re a rather humble guy. How is it painting your face into a piece? I‘m not the type of person who spends a lot of time in front of a mirror. But you must if you‘re using yourself as the model. I suppose any artwork really is a reflection of the artist no matter the subject matter— encrypted bits of the artist’s psyche. Tell me about your process. I like drawing directly from life. Sometimes an idea will go directly to a painting. Other times an idea takes more time to congeal and the drawings lay around the studio for some time before I revisit them. I have a lot of drawings that are pretty straightforward renderings from direct observation. Occasionally something in it will stimulate me to further elaborate. The sea is a recurring theme in your work. What’s the attraction? I like the mystery of the sea—the unknown lying just beneath the surface, unknown beauty and danger. Like once when I was a kid on vacation with my family. I was having a great time playing in the waves on a Caribbean beach, until I stepped on a sea urchin. Who are your primary influences, your favorite painters?
You say your paintings are “distilled” to their most important elements. Tell me about the editing process. I look at the process of painting as writing in a visual language. Like telling any story, you can easily lose your audience by spending too much effort describing things that aren’t critical to the story. But by downplaying certain details while embellishing others, the same subject matter can take on an entirely different meaning. It sounds easier than it is. I think of it as visual eloquence. Tina Guiomar
By oliver peterson
Do you imagine a narrative in your paintings? What’s your lobsterman’s story? There always is [a story], but often not obvious—hidden somewhere beneath the surface. If the viewer simply enjoys it at face value that’s fine with me. I always prefer to hear other people’s interpretation of my paintings. See more of Michael Kotasek’s work at Grenning Gallery in Sag Harbor or at kotasek.com.
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