back to the commission

Starting this week I'm working on the huge commissioned art piece again. Today me and my helper took a look at the wooden planks that cover the façade (last times it was still just concrete) to figure out what screws and montage will be best for securing the big aluminium shapes.

For me March and April will mostly be working on this commission, another minor commission, a wall painting project within Creative School starting tomorrow (like last year) and several screen printing workshops. It feels a bit wrong to take a big break from painting right now, but that's just the way it has to be. (Let's hope I'll continue working on my paintings in the back of my head)

still a struggle

I must say I haven't had this much resistance in my painting for ... I don't know how long. It feels good to let it show in a subtle way in a painting.

Market Art Fair

On Sunday I went to see Market Art Fair at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm. 39 galleries from Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland were participating. The airy white rooms of the Royal Academy are very good for showcasing art and it was very evident that those galleries know how to display art.

I very much liked Cajsa von Zeipel's sculptures. Johannes Nyholm's short movie Las Palmas made me laugh - it's just so fresh and direct. Here you can see the trailer.

Omid Dalefrouz Selfportrait (diptych). [you can see the artist in the reflction in the sunglasses]

Omid Dalefrouz Selfportrait (diptych)

Foregroound: Cajsa von Zeipel Second Best

Cajsa von Zeipel Blue Steel (close up)

Johannes Nyholm Las Palmas (short movie).

Päivi Takala's art grew on me in its simplicity

Maria Friberg Belongings

Supermarket Art Fair

I spent the weekend in Stockholm visiting the two Art Fairs Supermarket (artist-run galleries - not commercial) and Market (the leading Nordic galleries - commercial). Even though I somehow wish it wasn't like that ... I found the last one much more interesting.

Supermarket

So: on Saturday I visited Supermarket which is focusing on Artist-run galleries regularly staging public exhibitions in their own exhibition spaces and other artists' initiatives. The fair presented 70 artists' initiatives from 26 countries.

There were some very obvious protests against the commercialism in the art market (surprise!), performances and installations, some things that made me smile - and of course some good art. The main problem, as I see it with these kind of fairs, is very often that too much is squeezed in - and in small cubicles in a maze. Too much impressions. Art that demands a little more concentration will be lost. It's not for nothing that "the white cube" concept works well for much art. Or maybe so many impressions and fragments work for the zapping generation? [I don't think I belong there]. Anyway I thought everything looked so much more interesting and appealing when I looked in the exhibition catalogue afterwards...
Anna Linderstam (we studied art history together).
Nationalgalleriet - all about sausage (humour is never wrong)
a playful paper pigeon in the staircase (DKTUS)
the Art in Candyland's stand I might have appreciated in another context
Andreas Korsar showed some wooden sculptures next to his drawings (Galleri Box)

Tomorrow I'll post some photos from Market.

some results

I've posted glimpses of this painting before - now it is finished.

Wednesday in the studio

Not much more happening than this today.

But last week I was asked if I wanted to go to Glasgow for three days (all expenses paid) on an artist exchange project. Unfortunately I had to say no ... as I had other things booked that couldn't be rescheduled.

dreaming of spring

I's getting lighter, but it is still really cold. February is always the hardest month for me. I long for proper spring.  So yesterday I bought myself a tulip and then I booked 5 days in May in one of the guest studios at the Watercolour Museum in Skärhamn. (If you follow the link you'll see the brownish guest studios in the foreground in the photo of the museum.) I'll spoil myself rotten - good food and wine - and paint like crazy those days ... 

I'm having intense and very concentrated days in the studio now. Today 9 hours - which of course is an exception as I have a kid.

Art as Business: on a break

Here we go; 2011 – a new year. (Ok, it’s already mid February but we shouldn’t get obsessed with details, should we?)

I'm happy to say that things have been working according to plans; I've already managed to secure enough incomes for 2011 (commissions, workshops, guest teaching, wall painting project within creative school - and in addition I'll get some money for selling my art of course)! A new achievement is that I will give a screenprinting workshop at HDK (school of design and crafts) in spring and probably also give a summer course for them (teaching art at University level has been one of my goals for 2011). And I get more or less get 6 months of concentrated studio time to work on my own stuff (January and February has been two of the months). [for anyone new to this blog - I don't have any other job]

BUT - as you might have noticed I've stopped writing my Art as Business posts. I must admit I've totally lost all my motivation (I still do all the list writing and giving myself tasks, but I don't feel like writing about it), especially now when I'm trying to concentrate on painting. I overdid it with administration, coordinating and editing in autumn and kind of developed an aversion against writing structured text. My Art as Business Interview series will continue though.

bloody serious

work in progress, detail

In five weeks I'll have my next separate exhibition and up till today I hadn't come up with the exhibition title. Today it came to me - "Bloody Serious". 

But I can't really judge if I'm serious about it, and if I am - if it works. I'll think about it some more days.

my studio in sun light

This might have been what it looked like in my studio today. But I don't know for sure as I was at home all day (kid still home from preschool).

new works by Various & Gould and more here

calendar and cycles

Pintameldia's calendar for 2011 and a close up of one of my favourite girls inside it As a surprise gift I got Esti's calendar in the mail the other day. I love it Esti, Thanks! I'm home with a feverish son these days, as I tend to be this time of the year. Life goes in cycles and it becomes even more evident when you can check what happened last year by reading your own blog posts. Not only do I seem to be struggling with making new paintings in January/February - I seem to be utterly surprised that someone, like every year, interrupts my creative studio days (feverish son). What is really encouraging though - if I follow the same pattern - is that I will get the flow and make a number of good art pieces in the end of this month.

a brighter day

I might be seeing the light in the end of the tunnel.

I enjoyed reading how some of you handle creative blocks. Thanks!

how to get over that block?

For almost three weeks I've been trying to make some new paintings. I wanted to renew myself. But I haven't made any masterpiece - "au contriare". I've tried working in a different way with watercolour (spraypaint and sponge), pored black ink hoping for happy accidents - and topped it by making the worst kitsch painting ever (no, I won't show it).

Frustration.
Crisis.

Took some time to think today. Realized I've been forgetting that the concept actually is vital for me in my working process - and has always been. Why did I focus on the material? (Important, but not my starting point). Now I'm hoping for a turning point in the studio tomorrow. Cross your fingers.