October

Aušra Barzdukaitė-Vaitkūnienė,
www.kamane.lt , 2007 10 01

A.Vaitkūnas. “Primer of High Painting No. 2”. 2002, canvas, oil. 67x90 cm

“Metaphors of change and persistent signs,” Arūnas has chosen such a name for his future jubilee exhibition on the occasion of 50 years. Unfortunately, he did not have enough time for organising it.

The entire period of painting, change and processes started in 1998 when we bought a homestead in Dzūkija (Southern Lithuania).

Arūnas got inspiration for painting from here. He discovered motifs and using them he tested new methods of applying paint. He thought about pure painting, when it becomes a specific language which has no translation but for the contemplation.

At that time he was interested in processes as never before. Slips of nature, human being, time.

The titles of paintings denote that Arūnas was concerned about pure painting that reflects its essence – no plot, no literature, no signs in some works.

“Primer of High Painting No.2” was painted in nature as, according to Arūnas, there exists a full range of natural colours there, it is possible to see all processes of growth and decay in nature.

The painting has several dimensions. The colours have nuances, and an untrained eye may not notice the entire range. If we compared it with sound and music, colour would attain the frequency of ultrasound. The strokes are nervous but organised and they repeat the natural processes of growth and decay of herbs. Thin white bones on the very surface of the canvas are lines made by the other end of the brush which mark plants getting dry.

The painting is virtuoso-like but it does not lose reality, as it happens sometimes when one gets indulged in the achieved mastery. A strange feeling of macro-cosmos appears when observing the world of micro-nature.

The process is like change. Arūnas chose methods of paintings. He thought over everything anew, similarly as in 1994, during the period of “broom works” when he rethought the formed methods of his painting.

Painting in nature during summers. Later – painting in winter, when the same motif is painted in the workshop without nature.

The researches of a scientist – alchemist have emerged in the works of Arūnas. He named them as processes.