Anna Laicāne
Mandarins and Sunlight
13.03.2013 - 06.04.2013
Art and painting testify that man’s thoughts, ideas and desires are universal, but they occur in the minds of different people. People see the same objects, but depict them differently in painting. The unifying element is the process of seeing.
My landscapes represent journeys and roads in and out of Latvia. Looking for the beautiful near and far is what people are trying to do, and so do I in my paintings. Music and movies are the sources of inspiration for me. While listening to music I am delighted whenever someone has managed to compose a good piece. When watching a film I am interested in the work of the cameraman, and the visual image of the film. The creative process of painting is much the same: innumerable possibilities exist to conceive and depict things.
I have liked still life since childhood. For me, it is neither dead nor inanimate. It is alive. In the still lifes that I have painted, man’s presence is always felt. I paint boxes of cherries in the market, half-peeled tangerines hurriedly left on the table and a half- emptied cup of coffee. Pigeons are also a part of my still lifes.
Since landscapes exist outdoors where sounds are always present, they find their way to be expressed in painting. As a rule, still lifes or objects are placed indoors where silence prevails. I paint chestnuts as I find them to be very beautiful. In the autumn we can hear the wind blowing them off the trees. They drop with a deep sound and open when dashing against the ground. It is so autumn like when the change of seasons and flow of time are felt. It is like a haiku without words. Besides, chestnuts create associations with presents, the joy of opening them. We all like to take a chestnut, peel off its green shell to find the chocolate brown chestnut. It is one of the wonders of our childhood. My recent journeys have been sun-lit, the colours being so dazzling that my eyes had to blink. That is about all I have been painting.
/Anna Laicāne/