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Jay Koka Studio
TEN
a Retrospective of the Tenth
Anniversary Book |
ARTIST'S NOTES
for selections for the Gallery
Section
If you have three
children, which one do you love the most? It's much the same with paintings,
you love them all but for different reasons. Selecting the paintings for this
section was also difficult because painting has no beginning and end. It's a
journey of exploration and evolution with the best one always one canvas away.
The paintings reproduced here were chosen by me because each represents an
important moment in what I view as my continuing process of learning how to
paint. Each is very different from the next because I cannot allow myself to do
the same painting over and over again. I can't and don't want to spend my life
doing paintings of cars. I'd rather do paintings ... with cars in them. A
subtle distinction perhaps but one that is very important to me. There is great
artistic danger in automotive related art. Its roots are commercial and it can
easily become 'pretty", a cliche and a repetition of a successful formula.
While 'a distinctive style' may be important, I still think you should have to
look for the artist's name.
'Cosworth' and 'Mondial II' represent photorealism that I believe is
important for the honing of the technical skill of painting. As you must learn
to play the piano before you compose and improvise, so must you acquire the
technical competence in mastering the brush and paint. My earliest work in
particular concentrated on this task and these are excellent
examples.
'Green Period' aside
from being a successful exploration of a monochromatic theme is without
reservation my sentimental favourite. My late father was perhaps the most
strident critic of my work. I miss his honesty and good sense. One day, I was
sitting in the kitchen of my house visiting with my mother while he was
perusing work in my studio. After a while he walked into the kitchen and said
"are you in your green period?". It was the last painting he ever
saw.
The 'Indian Studies' and
'Wrought Iron' celebrate my life-long interest and enthusiasm for motorcycles.
‘Wrought Iron' has one of the most complicated backgrounds I've ever
painted (with the exception of Louis' Garage) and itit formsforms a suitable
period background for a truly fabulous machine. No brakes, no gears and it will
do over a hundred ... in 1914.
I
don't go to a lot of races because I really don't enjoy them. (I've been to
enough to last five lifetimes.) I like 'doing' racing, not watching it so when
at a race I tend to wander around looking at everything but the race itself. A
year or so ago I found myself at the Miami Grand Prix wandering around the
paddock area when I noticed a large crowd forming around a car making its way
up to the track. Cameras clicking, young guys going bonkers and as the crowd
thins here's a group of gorgeous young ladies pushing the car. Or so it seemed.
While the girls preened and postured for the cameras, one exhausted solitary
guy is pushing the car. Rush Limbaugh would have laughed and so did I. 'Pit
Crew' is my politically incorrect statement: (a) things are not as they appear
and (b) is it marketing or is it racing?
I am fascinated by what light does to colors. I'm especially drawn to
paintings with an excess of or a lack of light. 'Bugatti T54 Study V' is one of
a series of studies I did all based on this black car and the effect of
coloring. The series was done in watercolors and in acrylics. Study V is an
acrylic and my favourite of the group. 'Non Skid' is overwhelmed with light, it
should make you squint. 'Bugatti (1971)' and the 'Arches' series are the exact
opposite as they attempt to make you strain to see.
I hope you enjoy my selections.
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