Beginning to See the Light - Petr Liska
If you think that working as an airplane mechanic is a long way from working as an artist, you’re right. And if you think that Prague, Czech Republic is a long way from Appomattox, Virginia, you’re right again. Within these great distances, however, unfolded the life and art of Petr Liska.
Liska grew up in Prague during the 1960s. During that time, what was then Czechoslovakia formed part of the Iron Curtain, a bloc of Eastern European countries controlled by the Soviet Union. While he dreamed of playing music and painting, however, state officials had other plans: Liska would become an airplane mechanic.
But a temporary opening of Czech culture during 1968 (”Prague Spring”) allowed the 19-year-old Liska to hopscotch from East to West Germany before making the leap across the Atlantic pond and landing in Maryland in 1973. Eventually, he found his way to Appomattox.
I spoke to Liska about his art at his and his wife Magda’s farm in Gladstone.
“I remember being a little boy…,” Liska told me, “studying photos of paintings of old Masters….”
Under the right light, Liska said, any subject matter can be transformed into something special.
“I might drive by somewhere,” Liska said, “at a certain time of the day, and it’s…really lit up…sun set or sun down. It might look really drab during the day and you might not think about it, you might not look at it twice. But it gets this light, so I go, ‘…I have to come back here at five o’clock or something and do a quick sketch.’”
Never relying on formal training, Liska has delved into a variety of styles. And while his biggest influences have been impressionists and surrealists, he finds himself less drawn to specific artists than singular works of art
“It’s the same with music or painting,” Liska told me. “I might like a song, I might like a painting. And then one or two by somebody else.”
The richness of Liska’s paintings comes from his favorite medium, oil.
“I cannot do water colors if it killed me ..,” Liska said. “Oils just have this sheen, you can see through them. So I prefer to do that.”
Liska also believes in the power of inspiration, even if that means taking time away from painting.
“You’ve gotta really feel like doing it. If you don’t feel like doing it, [it] just ends up being an exercise…Which could be nice …[and] people like it, but, then there’s no blood on the canvas.”
Breaks away from painting also provide this artist time for soul searching.
“Breaks are good, I found out,” Liska said. “…I wanted to think about it, and figure out…what’s me, and do that. Because what’s the point of doing something like somebody else already did?”
As for his upcoming work, Liska is planning a series of landscapes that concentrate on the beauty of the Central Virginia countryside.
“I’m getting ready now,” Liska told me, “slowly thinking about doing a series of Appomattox County landscapes.”
Later in the morning Liska showed me his studio behind his house. The tabletops were scattered with brushes and tubes of paint, and a number of his paintings hung on the walls. Liska also showed me two provocative political paintings.
“Artists probably should make some statements about anything they feel like, whether it’s politics or anything else in life.”
This also speaks to what Liska believes is the larger purpose of art and why many people, even those who cannot draw a decent stick man, love art.
“It’s an artist’s job to let people know how you feel,” Liska told me, “so they can possibly compare. Probably a lot of people feel like you do. ‘Oh yeah, that’s how I feel. I can’t express it, but this guy can.’”
Besides his work as a painter, Liska is known to many in Appomattox as a musician who specializes in Piedmont blues. He hosts Swanie’s Review on Thursday night’s at Baine’s Books & Coffee and performs as a solo act about once a month (he will be performing at Baine’s on August 15).
Currently, Liska’s paintings can be viewed downtown at the Appomattox Gallery. Later this year, Petr and Magda plan to open a shop on Oakley Avenue that will include a showroom for Liska’s work.
Well done! I met Petr Liska some years ago and was so impressed with his story. I have admired his art for a long time and hope to have his work displayed in my home in the not too distant future. I am so glad he was able to realize his artistic and musical goals.
This is the best, most informative, creative and interesting
interview and report I have read in a long time!
I met the artist many years ago via my art mentor who saw one of his paintings in an exhibit at the Lynchburg Fine Arts Center and insisted we find and invite him to our exhibits.
WE DID - and continue doing twice a year at Fleetwood Community center in Massies Mill. Petrs artwork made such an “impression”, because its original, exciting, a variety of depths and dimensions and you never know whats coming next.
I still have Petr’s still life of a pitcher of flowers hanging in our bedroom that I was fortunate enough to purchase about 12 years ago when I worked with Magda in Rockville. It is so beautiful, just like the others have said, so many depths and dimensions. Good luck with the shop opening, friends!
Aug 20th, 2008 at 6:27 am
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