Surfing in the studio

Let me make it very clear from the start: I am not a surfer! I have tried it (thought I could do it since I am a skier, have windsurfed and skateboarded as a teenager) and have been deeply humbled. The struggle to get out past the breaking waves made me exhausted. Then trying to catch a wave, almost always being too slow/too late. Then finding yourself in a big wave, looking down into the abyss, believing your last moment has come. Once I managed to stand up for about 7/10 of a second before being knocked down and tumbled around for what seemed like ages. But I have experienced the rush on a boogie board…

Working on this painting was a bit like the description above. I struggled, did not believe in it at all. I was working with dark thoughts going around my head. But then, this morning, all of a sudden something happened. It felt like I caught a wave and I believed I could do it. I wiped the brush strokes away from the face of the baby to make a feeling of smooth skin. I left the brush strokes on the face of the mother, added highlight and a touch of warmth (raw sienna).

The painting is photographed with daylight coming down from my ceiling lights, creating a glare in the space between mother and child. The size is 90×70 cm. What next?

Detail: there is still a lot of wood texture in the work. Even in the space between mother and child, where there is a lot of paint, there is a clear presence of wood structure, which you notice as you come close to the work.

Commissioned work

I am working on a piece of a mother and a baby. I am working from a black&white photo. It is always hard to paint profiles, maybe it is because there is no eye contact?

It is also very hard to work from a photo taken with a flash. At this stage the work looks almost scary. I don’t know if I will be able to do this…?

Commissioned work

I am working on a piece of a mother and a baby. I am working from a black&white photo. It is always hard to paint profiles, maybe it is because there is no eye contact?

It is also very hard to work from a photo taken with a flash. At this stage the work looks almost scary. I don’t know if I will be able to do this…?

Cardinal purple or Mummy brown

Caput Mortuum means “dead head” or “worthless remains”, which is kind of scary considering I have used the color to paint the head of a living person. Caput Mortuum is also known as “Cardinal purple” since it has been a popular color to use for painting the robes of religious figures, according to Wikipedia: “The name for this pigment may have come from the alchemical usage, since iron oxide (rust) is the useless residue of oxidization. It was originally a byproduct of sulfuric acid manufacture during the 17th & 18th centuries, and was possibly an early form of the copperas process used for the manufacture of Venetian red and copperas red. Caput mortuum is also sometimes used as an alternative name for Mummy brown (alternatively, Egyptian brown), a pigment that was originally made in the 16th and 17th centuries from ground-up mummies, and whose use was discontinued in the 19th century when artists became aware of its ingredients.”

Hmm…? Yummy brown… But it is an interesting color to work with.

No title yet, 35×25 cm.

Caput Mortuum

I am back in the studio. Not much happening in the bathroom, but everything is planned and stuff will start happening soon. In the meantime I am back at the easel. I am making a small painting of an interesting face. The work is not intended as a portrait, just a study.

So far I have used Caput Mortuum and white.

Caput Mortuum

I am back in the studio. Not much happening in the bathroom, but everything is planned and stuff will start happening soon. In the meantime I am back at the easel. I am making a small painting of an interesting face. The work is not intended as a portrait, just a study.

So far I have used Caput Mortuum and white.

Biting the dust

I am back in the construction business. Renovating the bathroom at Villa Holsby Yesterday I removed a 20 cm layer of of concrete and stones and stuff. It was like being an archeologist – I found some plumbing in the floor.

Very dusty, indeed…

Stoke Boards with friends at Makeriet in Malmö

Last Saturday there was an opening at the tiny gallery Makeriet in Malmö. Lucas had been invited to show his hand-made and self-designed skateboards. He has asked various artists to paint them and the result is impressive…

Makeriet, at Möllevångsgatan 37 in Malmö.

Lucas is holding a tiny skateboard deck decorated by Rasmus Alkestrand.

Some of the skateboards are 140 cm in length. They are made of three or four layers of birch plywood, and are then hand-shaped.

Daddy was present…

The artist and the proud mother.

Inspired by Ai Weiwei

I am still taken up with Ai Weiwei. I have been inspired by some of his work and have spray-painted a traditional Höganäs urn…

I have also re-sprayed the text on the painting in several different colors until I settled for silver. Tomorrow I will place the work in the showroom of Höganäsgruppen at Magasin 36 (formerly Saltglaserat) in Höganäs.

The colors of the actual painting came out better this time…