The puddle on the road, the water in the glass and the giant waves in the ocean are just the same for me. Because water depends on hydrodynamic laws. All states of water are formed according to this law. The same law imposes all water movements to refer to balance. Since I have been observing and examining for almost forty years, I have advanced visual knowledge about the hydrodynamics and balance of water.I give great importance to light in my pictures. I definitely transfer light from an open source or a mysterious place. However, as the massive waves in the open seas are dense, they are opaque. But, again, by adhering to the law and balance, I make appropriate changes in terms of light transparency in the sea and the transparency of water. Sometimes I make pictures of our own beaches, but I do not transfer them directly. Also, I do not sketch any live or inanimate visual elements on the canvas beforehand. Because sometimes I transform some rocks in the region visual to a sandy beach, and I definitely add my own interpretation by furnishing beaches with rocks and sometimes trees. So, I start directly with paint.In realist paintings, the technique is measured by the photographic success rate. Because the color on the canvas and all other visual forms are subject to the boundaries of photography rules and natural discipline. In short, the artist’s brush is not free. However, I liberate my brush wherever possible in my paintings. The color structures in many forms give the impression that they are as if random brush strokes. Again, in the tone range transitions in neither light nor shadow colors, I do not let colors absorb like in the photograph. I transfer most of them as independent touches. Therefore, those who see my pictures closely often say, “When you look closely at the pictures, they are complicated, and when you look from a distance, they are like photographs.”Finally, as for the paintings I make, especially the sea paintings, I do not transfer any sea paintings on the canvas, including our beaches, by looking at any sea. This is why same of my seas do not exist in nature. Each sea picture of mine is a ‘Mustafa Günen sea’ and it is unique in the world.
MUSTAFA GÜNEN
Translated by Semih AYDIN