Rasťo Ekkert: “Beginnings Are Hard, but Finding Your Own Path Is Important”

To start, I’d like to apologize for my audacity in writing about art, because I don’t think I have the slightest right to do so. But perhaps my thoughts might help you in some way, and then it will have been worthwhile.

A few words about me to start....

I was born in 1964 in Bratislava. From an early age, nature was where I felt most at home. First, it was the forests of the Little Carpathians, and later, after I discovered the joys of mountaineering, the High Tatras, where I spent a lot of time as a boy from the lowlands. Later came the Caucasus, the Alps, and finally the Himalayas. As a reporter, my work took me all over the world. I saw wars and suffering, but also the joy of ordinary people, among whom I feel most at home.

The highlight was my Trip Around the World in Eighty Days. I always had a camera or video camera with me.

I started drawing and painting at a very young age.

I attended Július Koller’s weekend art studio. Given the demands of my work, for many years there was neither the time nor the peace and quiet for a regular creative practice.

But that changed.

Four years ago, my girlfriend Tinka and I moved to a little house in a secluded spot in the wilderness of Muránska Planina National Park. Here, my colorful world, which I had carried in my heart for many years, opened up to me.

Shepherds, loggers, simple, genuine people from the mountains, that is my world and my inspiration now. I describe my work as naive art. Although it draws on real landscapes and the people who live in them, I capture what is reflected from within me.

The landscapes and the people in them are reflections of my soul...that’s how I see it....and I believe that every painting keeps a little piece of me......

And now, let’s look for a path......

I’m sure I’m not saying anything new, but the foundation of everything is craftsmanship. Whatever form of visual art you pursue, you should first master drawing. To draw a person, a tree, a horse, or a dog, you don’t need a God-given talent. You just need to find a reference, pick up a pencil and paper, and draw. That’s the basic craft. A carpenter also has to learn to saw a board and hammer in a nail first....first, they make a hundred simple shelves, and only later do they start thinking about complex furniture.

The same goes for painting. I think anyone who wants to and is sufficiently persistent can master the craft. And now we’re getting closer to the path, or rather, to finding it.

Life moves very fast these days. Everyone wants everything, preferably right away.

There are hundreds of tutorials online on how to learn to paint. Of course, watching those videos can’t hurt, especially for self-taught artists like me. They’re valuable, particularly at the very beginning, but if you’re serious about it, you need to do a lot of thinking alongside painting every day. The possibilities for artistic expression are practically unlimited, which makes it hard to find your own path.

I won’t pretend to have all the answers. I’ll just tell you what I do.

I read everything about visual art that I can find, look at paintings, think, and paint. I live in the wilderness of the Murán Plateau. I meet people from the mountains and the plateau, so I decided that my work should reflect the environment I live in. I came up with a series called People of the Plateau.

In one year, I painted 40 paintings. At first, I worked in oils, but gradually switched to acrylics because I paint in layers, and acrylics suit me better because they dry quickly.

I’ve found my own path. I don’t copy anyone. I call my work naïve because I don’t like restrictions or rules...naïve art is freedom. I adapt real people and landscapes to my own vision. I don’t need to paint pure realism. That’s what cameras are for.....

What matters most to me is that with every new painting, I feel joy and excitement. I feel that I’m moving forward and that my path is giving me a clear direction....

That’s my perspective. I hope these words have inspired you, at least a little.Painting is a joy and it should be very personal.

If you leave a little piece of yourself in your painting...then your time and work have meaning....

Rasťo Ekkert