How do you define success? Oil on plywood, 2 x 2 m

I think I am done…? Maybe I should have stopped weeks ago? Hard to say. I know for sure there is no way back. Painting has for me become a learning process about having courage to fail. One good think about my art is that if you decide to cut it up and burn the pieces in a fireplace, you will stay warm for a little while.

If you stand close to the painting it becomes almost abstract. Two by two meters is relatively large, so it is almost possible to join the guys on the rocks. The painting is based on a polaroid photo Lucas took of his friends, the Viken Boys.

How do you define success? Oil on plywood, 2 x 2 m

I think I am done…? Maybe I should have stopped weeks ago? Hard to say. I know for sure there is no way back. Painting has for me become a learning process about having courage to fail. One good think about my art is that if you decide to cut it up and burn the pieces in a fireplace, you will stay warm for a little while.

If you stand close to the painting it becomes almost abstract. Two by two meters is relatively large, so it is almost possible to join the guys on the rocks. The painting is based on a polaroid photo Lucas took of his friends, the Viken Boys.

20 September, 2010

I went to Art Copenhagen Saturday. 75 galleries from Denmark and Sweden, Finland Norway, Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands were showing too much art. After a few hours of looking at a lot of art of various quality, you feel like your head is going to explode. How do you pick out anything special in such a great selection? After a while some artists and some works remain in your mind. I always enjoy Michael Kvium, saw some nice works by Astrid Sylwan, saw a piece for sale by Olafur Eliason, priced at EUR 150.000 – probably a good investment for the brave?

Sunday I had to rest from art, so I spent some hours reading a new biography about Leo Castelli, ha ha. But it takes a while until the biography gets to his gallery career, as the book starts with his ancestors way back in the eighteenth century. Ambitious…

Today I have been back in the studio, pushing my painting a step further. I sanded the rocks at the bottom of the picture some more to make the wood grain come out more. Painted the sides black (cannot be seen in these photos) and then covered the green square with black, wiped a lot of paint off, then used the taping knife again to scrape off more paint.

Something is missing. Maybe I will come up with something tomorrow?

16 September, 2010

Home again! And back at work in the studio. I have made some additions to the large painting – I applied a thin layer of green. Then I used a spackling knife to scrape off as much paint as I could. I also sanded off a lot of the dried paint on the bottom rocks.

Now I am thinking about what to call the painting – how about this:
How do you define success?

13 September, 2010

Andrea and I have been away for a while, are still gone. We have been in Washington D.C., where we saw a lot of art, and walked the city in the heat. Nice city!

Then we drove down to Roanoke, Virginia, where Andrea’s parents live. Did a few projects around the house for them and spent time with her family.

After a week there we drove further south to Lake Lanier north of Atlanta, where my brother Ralph lives with his family. Here we are enjoying warm and humid days right on the lake. I have built a frame for a painting he bought from me recently. The painting is on canvas, 130 x 80 cm, and it was painted several years ago.

13 September, 2010

Andrea and I have been away for a while, are still gone. We have been in Washington D.C., where we saw a lot of art, and walked the city in the heat. Nice city!

Then we drove down to Roanoke, Virginia, where Andrea’s parents live. Did a few projects around the house for them and spent time with her family.

After a week there we drove further south to Lake Lanier north of Atlanta, where my brother Ralph lives with his family. Here we are enjoying warm and humid days right on the lake. I have built a frame for a painting he bought from me recently. The painting is on canvas, 130 x 80 cm, and it was painted several years ago.