Seeing With the Eyes of an Artist

By Ellen Samsell Salas

If you’ve been in your favorite local coffee shop on a Saturday morning and spotted a woman sketching, it may have been Laurie Litke. From the time she was a small child, Litke has loved to sketch. 

“It might be buildings, or people, or animals,” she said. “I really try to carve out my time to just draw.”

Seeing with the eyes of an artist, she uses pencils or sometimes watercolor to capture whatever catches her attention. Even as she drives to work, she looks at the scenes she passes and thinks about what she wants to depict in her art.

With a degree in graphic design, Litke has designed works for the Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Falcons, and the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. She also worked as a graphic artist for Family Life Publications for several years. Now, Litke sketches and paints for herself, sometimes doing commissioned work. She finds pet portraits especially fulfilling because they allow the animals to be remembered by their owners.

Litke doesn’t aim to create a specific message in her sketches and paintings. She is open to what intrigues her. 

“I see a beautiful bouquet, and I try to paint what I feel,” she said. “I paint whatever moves me.” 

For example, she has been inspired by water towers and barbershops, and once, while on a drive, she spied an old Coca-Cola machine, so she stopped and took photos of it. She later painted a close-up of the machine that depicts only a small bit of the faded red metal and the much-used buttons, yet it immediately evokes memories of hot summer days and cool, refreshing sodas.

Just as her subjects are “all over the place,” Litke’s palettes also vary, though she usually opts for rich hues. Admiring the work of Maxfield Parrish, she has tried to emulate the energy created through his interplay of hot and cold tones. She prefers to work in oils because although oils demand more time, their rewards are robust colors and the ability to blend as well as depict details. She relies on brush strokes to create movement and texture thatevoke emotion.

A people person, Litke also teaches a Sunday afternoon class at Woodstock Arts. “There’s no pressure — just having fun,” she said. “Art doesn’t have to be perfect — it just has to make you feel something.”

To see more of Laurie Litke’s art, follow her on Instagram @LaurieLitke.