Earth's Scribe : Artist Harry Orlyk
by Ross Rice
...The paint
still on the brushes is put to use on a pile of 30 or 40 large paper
sheets, which Harry goes through to find a spot that needs the color
on the brushes. Each sheet has an ongoing image-in-progress: some are
abstract, many have figures and shapes that have struck Harry in a
funny way one day, fighting birds, dead soldiers, snippets from C-Span,
sub-conscious bubblings. Harry gives little thought to the results.
This part of the process seems to cleanse Harry’s creative “palate” as well as the palette and brushes, and
he’s ready to hit the trail. Once onsite, he paints very quickly, especially
in the winter, inside his van without its running (fear of carbon monoxide),
trying to catch the light at just the right time often with three brushes
in one hand, with his “canvas” mounted on his steering
wheel.
To Harry, painting is half recording and half creating. “When
I park and face the landscape, it’s only a starting point. I
feel like this act is going to do something to me now, I have no idea
what—it’s always a mysterious event to me. When I leave the studio, I say OK,
I’m going to paint now, I get very anxious; I get a pain in my chest. There
are times I go out feeling absolutely broken, and I’ll go out,
and those environments will make a better painting than any other,
and I’ll go home saying (with elation) ‘I’m cooking dinner!’” Harry
even goes so far as to pick the nastiest, coldest day, bundles up well,
and makes himself go out to paint. Every so often he has to use masking
tape to help clear a small spot to see out through the window. Sometimes
the harder he makes the process, the sweeter the redemption.
Though he does paint them quickly, that’s not to say that they’re
rushed. The best of Harry’s work, and it is quite consistent
in quality, is reminiscent of the great works of Monet and Van Gogh... CONTINUE...
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