Harry Orlyk

Harry Orlyk (b. 1947)

“A quarter century of painting has been an act of the imagination to determine who and what I am with respect to the earth and sky. Process, rather than product oriented, searching for the daily painting, has become a way of living in relationship with the earth. To become a human being, a part of nature rather than someone separate observing it from the outside, like hunter-gathers, I am led from one opportunity to the next, being directed by seasonal stages. The relationship has become the trust I give it to show me where my next painting will be. Each painting entails facing a swath of creation and observing something of its story, becomes a long log of small truths.”

Though born, educated, and now residing in New York, landscape painter Harry Orlyk still attributes much importance to the influence Nebraskan artists had on him during the nine years he resided in the state.  He received his MFA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1974.

Orlyk now paints from the back of his van in Salem, New York, working to capture each individual day as it occurs.  There is a unique richness and depth created by his thick, free strokes and his refusal to dilute his paints with turpentine.  His landscapes are notable for the feeling of connectedness he creates. “There is no struggle between man and nature in Orlyk’s paintings; all is harmonious, productive and beautiful-rural America at its finest.”