Len Sodenkamp Art: How long did it take?

Len Sodenkamp Art: How long did it take?: One of the most common questions folks ask is HOW LONG DID IT TAKE. I think what they are really asking is how much$$. They don't now i...

How long did it take?

One of the most common questions folks ask is HOW LONG DID IT TAKE. I think what they are really asking is how much$$. They don't now if I am joking or serious when I say it depends on how big a brush I use. This seams perhaps an arrogant reply however it is for the most part very true. Using large brushes and lots of pigment allows for those happy accidents to just happen. Spontaneous passages and shapes that appear with a single stoke. The trick is recognizing them before with the next stoke you paint them away. Just because a painting happens quickly does not mean it is in some way substandard or invalid. The need to place time into the creation of art is just a condition known as tick-tock sickness. We live by the clock--- tick-tock. All our lives we get compensated hourly or yearly but art doesn't happen that way. Art is that amazing thing that humans do were time really isn't a factor. Admittedly I let tick-tock sickness creep in at times and get caught up with the incorrect notion that time has a relationship to art value. Paintings that happen fast without seemingly any effort are always in my personal opinion the best. I do from time to time catch myself placing an hourly value on them. I look around my studio at the stacks of paintings and wonder why I do it and then I paint another and another. I am a landscape painter and I cant think of anything I would rather do. Years ago a painter friend ask me who my favorite painter was, I rattled off several names and he said no; you are. Its true, I must paint because the next painting will be my best or certainly the one after that. I suppose that sounds O.C.D. Anyway perhaps it is but the more important question one might ask is how did you paint that. My reply will most certainly be; with a large brush just for you. It should be in your home not my studio. Its just in the way, I am trying to paint my best one and I need the room.

This painting was done with a three inch brush and took approximately 3 hours.

oil on panel 48 inches x 24 inches (250.00) unframed + shipping

www.sodenkampart.com