Creating is waiting

I know for sure that I can do a good job in many ways, but when it comes to painting it is totally different. I never know. Maybe that is the reason why I want to paint? It is maybe the challenge – can I do it one more time? One problem with creating and painting is that you cannot force the process, you absolutely have to learn to wait. For the paint to dry, for the creative flow, for the ideas to come. It is maybe like digging for a well, or a tunnel. You work and work and nothing happens, and it is easy to despair. But then at some point, something normally starts happening and you can see some hope materializing. I wonder why I always forget that this is what it takes…?

Like here, for example: now I have to wait for the paint to dry, probably a couple of days. I also wonder if this picture will become interesting at some point? Size 40 x 60 cm.

In the meantime I have come up with a number of great challenges, and I can probably stay busy all winter with the material I have now. Today I have been building the “canvas” for the next work. It is a large piece, 107 x 228 cm, divided in eight equally large parts.

I am really looking forward to working on this project…

Finding faces…

True to my ambition of always doing something I have never done before, I am painting a face with something like a mirror image in the same picture. Hopefully I can balance this work. The trick is not to overdo…

Trying to find a new face

I have started a new painting. I don’t know this person, have never met her, but I know who she is. Now I have started the difficult process to find a face that will be interesting to look at regardless of who it is. This is not going to be a portrait.  The first steps…

Two Happy Brothers, one beaming father, and one confused artist

If you don’t risk making a fool of yourself, you will never make a fool of yourself… Well, I said I am confused. Often I feel very unsure of what I am doing while I am doing it. It often takes a while for me to accept my own work. Why is that? Is it the perfectionist in me? Or just plain fear of failure, of not being good enough?

This time I have gone far out. Call it playfulness or whatever… I have done it, can’t change that. I hope kids will like it anyway. If kids like my work, I am really pleased. I think they are often the best art critics – honest and straight-forward.

The size of the piece, including frame, is 58 x 82 cm. I have dripped spraypaint on glass, which I have mounted with 1 cm distance to the painting. The drops of paint create shadows on the painting and when the light changes, the shadows shift position.

Detail showing the shadows. When you look at the painting from a close distance, you can clearly see the wood texture. As usual with my work, it is a painting you need to see in real. I hope Erik W will like it…

Another picture taken in hard light (halogen spotlight).

Two happy brothers & one confused artist

Like I said… where is this going?

I guess the paint has to dry for a few days and then…? I have, for sure, never done anything like this before. It is important to challenge yourself and risk total failure. You can always start on a new one and burn the old… it is getting colder outside.
The format is 56 x 80 cm.

Two happy brothers & one unhappy artist

I am working on a commission. Why did I say yest to this? I guess I will find out in the end. Because I absolutely have to try something new to make this work. Sometimes I hate the beginning…

Peter the Great and Pocket Art

It has been a long time, but here is the final version of a painting I worked on during the summer. I can’t come up with a suitable name, so in the meantime I call it Peter the Great. The size of the work is 80 x 54 cm and it is 5,4 cm thick. The wood texture is a bit more subtle, but can be seen in the right light. I have used oil and spraypaint.

I have also finished two commissioned tiny paintings. I call them Pocket Art, because you can bring the paintings in your pocket, if you wish. The size of each piece is 7,5 x 6,2 x 1,8 cm.

Pocket Art & Venetian mask

I am almost done with the two pocket art pieces I have been working on. Three layers of varnish have been applied. Now only the back sides need to be completed and signed.

I had an idea to work on a project with venetian masks. I don’t really know. But this is the first one and this is as far as I can come…

Clowning around in the studio…

I had an old unfinished painting that I just started clowning around with. Looks miserable to me…

I have also been working on a couple of tiny commissions.

A layer of varnish will soften them up a bit and then maybe I need to do something more, will see.

New Project in the studio

There is a thin ray of light in the studio.

I am starting up a new project. Keep an eye on it…