Artwork in the room
Gražina Vitartaitė, a distinguished Lithuanian artist, grounds her creative practice in spontaneity and pure emotion. “When I paint, I simply feel—it’s not a conscious process. I don’t overthink what should be combined, as the colors and tones emerge naturally. When inspiration strikes and I find focus, I am not searching for particular motifs; instead, I am captivated by the idea and the allure of the present moment. I attempt to seize that feeling. In both art and life, there can be no standstill,” the artist shares about her work. Through this intuitive method, she is able to authentically and immediately capture the world around her.
Vitartaitė is most acclaimed for her landscape paintings, which reflect the gentle, tranquil beauty characteristic of the Lithuanian countryside. Frequently, the coastline and her hometown of Krekenava serve as her principal sources of inspiration—settings that evoke feelings of liberation and escape. Her paintings are marked by expressive brushwork and a profound emotional connection to the landscapes she portrays, channeling nature’s poetry and serenity. She upholds the value of harmony between humanity and the natural world, inviting viewers to a visual meditation and encouraging them to cultivate their own personal engagement with nature through her art.
Between 1980 and 1989, Gražina Vitartaitė led the Department of Painting at the State Art Institute, which is today the Academy of Fine Arts, where she held the position of associate professor. She has presented upwards of 70 solo exhibitions both within Lithuania and abroad. Her artworks are part of significant Lithuanian museum collections, including the Lithuanian Art Museum (LDM) and the National M. K. Čiurlionis Art Museum (NČDM), and can also be found in numerous public institutions and private collections across Lithuania, the United States, and various European countries. Vitartaitė has also released several painting albums, such as "Towards Inner Freedom" (2007), "The Curonian Spit" (2010), "Landscape Metamorphosis" (2015), and a dedicated volume on Krekenava Regional Park.
The artist’s journey and creative achievements have been explored in the documentary film "Towards Inner Freedom" (2013), directed by A. Tarvydas, as well as in the television feature "Portraits of Artists" (2017), produced by LRT and directed by V. Beconienė. These projects offer a deeper understanding of Vitartaitė’s artistic philosophy and her enduring influence on Lithuanian visual art.
About this artwork+
In this painting, the Earth is portrayed within a large transparent sphere, like a globe. The sphere is centered in the canvas, imbued with vibrant yet subtly intermingled shades of green and gentle hints of blue that imply a lush, living presence. The imagery inside the sphere suggests an abstract landscape, marked by circular motifs that may symbolize nature's cyclical processes or perhaps the presence of life in various forms. These circles, detailed with concentric rings, vary in color from deep, resonant reds at the center, fading out to softer pinks and surrounded by bands of white and turquoise, giving them a mesmerizing, eye-like appearance. The texture of the painting is rich and dynamic, characterized by thick, impasto strokes that add a tactile quality to the vista, implying the organic, ever-evolving surface of a planet teeming with life. The shades and textures outside the sphere blend into a serene blue, simulating a cosmic or atmospheric backdrop that suggests the planet is floating in a vast, possibly aquatic or airy space. The application of the paint, with its raised and varied surface, enhances the overall feeling of vitality and movement, echoing the painting’s theme of Earth as a living, dynamic entity.
