ONDŘEJ RYPÁČEK

Statement

I'm a painter. I paint oils because of their superior colour and properties. Oil paint is more colourful, and has more variability of transparency and texture than other medium. With oil paint I'm the one in control, not the factory. 

It doesn't look like plastic when it dries. 

Oil paint is made of pigment and a drying oil (linseed  or walnut most often). Pigment is just ground stuff. So everything is very basic. Lot of it is made by hand. 

I like the contrast of the physical and the abstract.

I paint on unprimed linen, because I dislike the idea of picture making. I make paintings. They are flat objects. And, of course, the flatness is important as it allows for the illusion of depth and all sorts of illusions (just go to a museum of illusiuons). To do an illusory depth we must get rid of actual depth.  So painting gives me more freedom than a sculpture would. I like the physical existence (what the painting is) and the illusory existence to rub against each other. 

I like the contrast of order and chaos. Submission and freedom.

In my paintings, you will find layers which appear more structured, controlled, guided by a system or an outside principle, interleaved with chaotic passages. Sometimes I like to take my hands completely off it and let it do its own thing. It flows and spreads, finds its way. 

I like to watch paint dry. 

Oil paint changes a lot while it dries. It becomes more translucent. It settles into the previous layer. It looses some volume due to evaporation, if the paint is dilluted a lot. Actual "drying" of oil paint is not drying as such, but a "curing". It is a chemical reaction. A transmutation.

All art is based on transmutation

If there is no transmutation, there is no art. 

My paintings are abstract beause I'm a child inside.

I like the free play (although, of course, there is an underlying system that I'm not going to disclose) and , even though I studied figurative painting for quite a while, I don't find the need to restricted by resemblence in my games. I find it oppressive. All children start off as abstract painters. Try giving your todler quility materials and watch them go. Unrestrained by shoulds and musts. If they like red, they go red. All of it. I envy them.

Should all art be childish?

Probably not. Conscious thought is a part of adult life. But free play is too.