Interview with Pavol Olsavsky

Pavol Olsavsky is a fourth year Mason Gross student majoring in Painting. The majority of his paintings depict landscapes and figures, which are very expressionistic and painterly. His painting style has been evolving over the past recent years, which have taken his paintings towards a new direction.

[ EG]From the paintings I’ve seen it seems that you mostly paint with oil colors, is that true?

[PO]Yeah oil paint mostly.

[EG]Do you use a special brand of oil colors?

[PO]I used to use Old Holland but they were more expensive so I started using Gamblin instead.

[EG]Does the paint make a difference? Where you happier using old Holland instead of Gamblin?

[PO]I was but then I stopped, it was too expensive but then I realized a lot of people use different spirits. I don’t use that many spirits to mix in. I like to paint rough, you know, usually I just use paint thinner and put some regular oil varnish. I couldn’t do with that stuff on a canvas when I could with paint is rough, just physical slap the paint on there.
 
[EG]What artists do you look up to or like their work? Feel influence by?
 

[PO]I started with impressionist Cezanne, Manet, and Monet. I like that it looked physical, if u step back from those paintings you see something different then when you are up close. If you see the water lilies in real life its huge. When you come up close you see the brushstrokes all over the place.
 
[EG]Do brushstrokes play a big role in your paintings? 

[PO]A huge role, brushstrokes and color are important. I usually I use one regular size brush. The bigger the canvas the bigger the brush I use. Sticking to one or two brushes is tougher for me. I like to challenge myself. It's better to use different brush sizes because you have more of a leeway, but if you use one brush and you’re trying to make a painting it becomes more difficult.
 
[EG]So, you enjoy challenging yourself? 
 
[PO]Yeah, because then I lose the plan I have initially, and then it gets harder, I realize that’s how I actually make paintings that I like. It's more about going with the flow and spontaneity.

[EG]How do you start a painting usually? Do you draw it first?

[PO]No, I used to draw it first, now I just paint it straight up. I make outlines with my brushes. It doesn’t really look like a sketch. I just indicate then I put colors down and go forward with that. But it depends also on what painting. With landscapes I usually start with the background. So the background I chose to be light.  I also take pictures of the landscape sometimes.  I paint, and then take a picture; back home if I want to change something, I change something.  I went to the beach and painted the beach while I was chilling out there and then I was trying to paint it at home but it didn’t really come out right.

[EG]How long does it take you to finish a painting?

[PO]It depends, it varies sometimes I’ll just stop, but I never really know when I’m done. One time I remember I was painting and it was done but then I did something to it and I was like whoa! This looks better, so I kept doing it, painting and painting. I just messed it all up.
 [EG]How important is the background in the painting?

[PO]It’s very important. It’s hard to depict atmosphere.  Atmosphere value in the painting with colors, you have to choose your colors especially if you try to paint a few brushstrokes, you have to know the color you’re going to put down so there’s depth in it.

[EG]How about lighting, does it play a role?
 
[PO]Plays a big role, I have to have good lighting, and it doesn’t work like that. I used to paint in my basement and it looked different upstairs and outside. I like to see all the colors.
 
[EG]I noticed you paint mostly figures and landscapes?
 
[PO]The thing with me is that I always get carried away with different things. I have these moments. I usually have figures and landscapes.
 
[EG]How do you choose your landscapes and figures?
 
[PO]I guess woman figures. I like to paint female figures. Things that I define as beautiful, I have to feel pleasantly, it has given me inspiration, a kind of butterfly feeling.
 
[EG]Do you work from photographs or real life?
 
[PO]I started of doing real life still life or landscapes; I went outside, took photographs a lot for reference. This summer I started going out doing plein air paintings, just went outside and painted. That took me one to two hours a sitting.
 
[EG]Do you ever use any other tool besides a brush?
 
[PO]No, just a brush.
 
[EG]How big are your paintings usually?
 

[PO]The ones I showed you are 12 by 16, but usually are up to like 20 inches, 20 by 26.
 
[EG]Where do you see your art going? What do you want to pursue in painting?
 
[PO]I just want to paint, man, I want to find the exact thing, the butterfly feeling every time I paint. A theme something that I really care about painting, a message too but a personal one, i don't know.
 
[EG]What made you decide to paint instead of doing sculpture or another medium?
 
[PO]Probably the experience of painting. First I started drawing that’s how I got into art, I liked to draw. Then I started painting, then watercolor and then oil painting. I walked into the experience of having this physicality, you know, brushstrokes, and then I saw Monet. Lucien Freud is one of my favorite artists, the thick brushstrokes he made paintings with. It’s just something I like.
 
[EG]Have you tried sculpting? Since you say you like that physical aspect in art?
 
[PO]Yeah a little bit, I liked it. I’d like to expand more on it because even when you paint thicker, it’s almost like you’re sculpting. I haven't done sculpting enough yet to say I like it as much as painting, but I do want to get into it because that’s the same concept that I paint in.

  
[EG]your work reminds of some of Gauguins work, what do you feel towards him?
 

[PO]I love Gauguin. Yes definitely.I want to do that with brushstrokes because if you’re not confident about painting, like thickly, then it doesn’t come out right, like physically. You kind of see that doubt. It looks shaky. If you’re confident about the mark you make then it comes out right.  You look at it and wow there’s energy. Doesn’t look necessarily finished, I get the point but it’s precise.  In its own way, the brushstrokes are what where there supposed to be. They are what they are supposed to be and they’re conveying what they’re supposed to.  I’m not at that point yet but I would like to.

[EG]Do you ever use sketches? What does your sketchbook look like?

[PO]I don’t really make any sketches for my paintings, I just make sketches to draw cause I like drawing and I like painting.

[EG]You have a pretty big sketchbook.

[EG]What do you think is the difference between your drawings and your paintings?

[PO]It’s more like uptight, I don’t want to say uptight, I guess you can say my drawings are more academic.  And my paintings are more energetic.

[EG]Is that where you want to get with your drawings?

[PO]That’s where I want to get with my drawings, to be depicted as my paintings are.

[EG]So you want the same energy as the paintings to go to your drawings?

[PO]I’m not there yet but yeah.

[EG]What do you think is more important to you, the figures or the landscape?

[PO]I don’t prefer…its like do you love your mom or your dad more? 

I like to draw women and stuff and anatomy.  There are magazines I find…I just want to… hone my skills in drawing. I don’t feel like my drawings are the same as my paintings, though.

[PO]I never draw, like, everything’s all messy.  I see other peoples’ sketchbooks, they’re all nice and I can never keep that. It’s always like all over the place. I want to expand in this kind of style, it’s looser, more expressive but it depicts what it should.

[EG]Have you tried any other style besides expressionistic and realistic? How do you feel about abstract?

[PO]I mean there’s good abstract.  Personally I feel like I don’t feel like I can, i'm not enjoying myself when I paint like too abstract.  Not something that I prefer but I can, I can go loose and crazy with colors. That’s actually my abstract work that I did just all brushstrokes and color. 

[EG] I get the sense that there’s like areas where you don’t pay much attention on your paintings. Or like, you don’t care about them. Is there a reason behind that?

[PO]It could be that you could call that my weakness. I usually get lost on something that gives me that feeling of painting. Like I feel its right.

[EG]What do you think your thesis theme will be, judging from your current work?

[PO]Well, my painting style changed drastically last year, I had Hanneline and she pushed me and pushed me, and it was a really good thing because I found myself in a different spot and expanded on the whole brushstroke thing and the colors that I wanted to depict. So I definitely want to do that, but as far as theme wise I don’t know yet, I want to show something that I observe personally all the time, in the style that paint. The surrounding, maybe combine both figures and landscape.