Why & How

 

RVJpleinaire, photo of Roger Vincent Jasaitis returning from painting "en plein air".I approach painting from a spiritual viewpoint. I believe that the spirit underlies all in the natural world and that by listening closely to that “still, small, voice of the spirit within” (a Quaker concept) I can distill from the subject the iconic in some degree. To realize the fabric that binds the world together, whether you call it god, spirit, quantum mechanics or the collective unconscious, my aim is to capture an immediate harmony with the soul of the subject.

My method is to paint in oil paint on various media including; paper, Masonite and wood panels, canvas and linen surfaces using brushes and knives. I layer paint in an additive and subtractive manner, mixing impasto and glazes with sgraffito to achieve a finely textured surface. I use both compositional design and close color harmony to accomplish a sense of luminescence and depth of field.

Where I live as an artist, in the southern Green Mountains of Vermont, shapes my landscape subject matter in the idiom of the New England landscape.  While walking the landscape with both paint and camera in hand, I capture images “en plein air” and also collect subject matter for use in both consciously and subconsciously inspired landscapes. Beauty out of chaos, photo of the palette and paints of Roger Vincent Jasaitis, RVJart.comWhen I paint portraits or travel to some other location to paint or paint other subject matter, I find that my approach to creating art does not change.

Making visible the spirit within the subject is the goal. I am a seeker of the truth and beauty through art. You can call my work representational, but for me it represents more than reality. It is emblematic of what I see as the divine spirit in the natural world.