Kihnu Island in Estonia, pastel, 18½ x 24½"
“While I represent realist art, I nevertheless paint air, light and emotion,” says Estonian artist Aapo Pukk. “Figuratively speaking, I am attempting to find a spring as pure as possible and extract water as pure as possible, while still remembering the locations of other springs,” he muses. “I am constantly searching. Every painting that is a success is like a reward for extensive work. Watercolor is the art of adding and taking away. I keep studying—myself, the possibilities of technique and the efficiency of methods. To find out the things I could pass on to my students.”
Lilacs, watercolor, 14 x 10¼"
Pukk’s watercolors (and his pastels) are light, airy and free-flowing. “My wife and I were holidaying in Croatia [when I painted Komiža, Vis Island, Croatia,” he says. “We watercolored a lot. After all, you cannot remain merely photographic. I am attempting to attune myself to the place, so that there is as little of me as possible in that image—so that the feel of the place reaches me before reality hits.”
Komiža, Vis Island, Croatia, watercolor, 10¼ x 7"
While his watercolor Lilacs undoubtedly captures the form of pale violet blooms, the painting has an abstract quality to it as well. “How little can one say without leaving something important unsaid?” he reflects. “So that the viewer does not simply pass by, [but wants] to keep going with the artist.”
Pukk has been a member of the Portrait Society of America since 1999 and has been a signature member since 2017. The self-employed artist has also won a number of major and minor prizes throughout his art career. —
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