pinkish

Have a nice weekend!

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Numbers

20 - the anniversary Grafik i Väst (a printmaker's association) is celebrating. Here the catalogue to celebrate the occasion.

5 - the page where you will find my screenprint "POW!"

104 - how many other artists you will find in the catalogue. Check it out here 1 - where you will find me in the on-line catalogue (the link above) 910 - the number of this post .... 0 - minutes is actually the time I should spend blogging tonight (now I'm on borrowed time)

exhibition: Jan Lööf

titthål = peep hole

Today we visited the Art Museum and saw the exhibition on Jan Lööf (illustrator, model-builder, writer, film-maker and more). They have made a playful little exhibition with fun solutions. The kiddo enjoyed it a lot and was especially fascinated with how the films were made; they showed black and white behind the scenes clips with the models and figures and then clips with the results. (My genius 6 year old son is already making stop motion movies with his lego and my old digital camera)

laughter

detail I'm working with laughter. To get the right feeling I smile like the Joker in Batman while painting. It has to be like a grin. And it should be effortless. (It's exhausting. I've washed away several painting that didn't do. The sponge is my most used tool)

Cissi's patterns on fabric

My studio neighbour Cissi has been working on a public commission for a preschool at the same time as I have been working on my commissioned art piece (the one in my last post). So I've been following her work in progress for a year and I've been so curious to see the final results. Today I finally got to see Cissi's patterns printed on different fabrics. It might look good on the screen, but it is so so much better in real life! Unfortunately Cissi is moving to another studio :( I'll miss you, Cissi!

the title

The school kids came with several suggestions for the title last week. There was one very obvious winner: Snow White talks to the Phantom while Batman is disturbing and the Wolf is howling. These days (or actually nights) it's all about putting together materials applying for public commissions, creative school projects and grants. I try to limit this work to nights only - as my autumn was reserved to studio time only. This is the reason why I'm blogging less; I basically try to get rid of all that kind of work before the end of the month. It's part of my all present "cluster cluster" strategy. In October I'm planning to be more interesting here on my blog ...

drawing for fun

Sometimes I feel it has all gotten so serious with my art - it's my livelihood and all my life. What about sometimes doing things just for fun and no other purpose? So - when Pikaland announced you could win a participation in arthousecoop's sketchbook project I decided to take the chance and gamble. And I won. The other day I got my sketchbook with the theme Grey side of life (perfect for me). Anyone - from anywhere in the world - can be a part of the project - so what are you waiting for? In 2008 I participated in another of Art House Co-op's projects: the scavenger project.

some flow

painting.

concrete cake ready

While waiting for the watercolour to dry I've been unwrapping and checking my little concrete samples in the studio. Now they've hardened enough and can be let to dry.  I was a bit worried when turning my "cake form" over to get the simplified Snow White out. But it went without any problem! I had made an experiment mixing concrete with different pigments for a painterly effect. It worked on one side only. So it was no big deal I got that crack... The good thing is that I can reuse my form as planned for trying out variations.

this is that horrible horrible concrete dog I wrote about earlier. Good experiment though; I made a quick kind of relief drawing/shape in soft clay, put plastic wrap on top (so the clay wouldn't suck the water out of the concrete). then put concrete with brownish pigment as dots for nose and eyes, then added normal grey concrete on top. When the dog had hardened for a day I removed it from the form and painted it with yellow brown clay water which reacts in a way with the not yet dried concrete. (if you wanted to know how it was done) It turned out my son liked it so much better than Snow White above ...

getting the floor dirty

Yesterday I felt a bit lost, I didn't really know where to start. It's been 3 months without painting. I looked at the paintings I made in May in Skärhamn. Ok, but now what.? I felt blank, I feared a block.

This morning when I came to my studio it was bathing in light (good thing I painted the floor white) and I knew exactly what to do. I have a feeling this is going to be a great autumn.

white, white, white

After spending a couple of days in the studio fixing those last things I didn't arrange in July (putting up shelves, sorting drawings and prints) I'm now ready to start a period of just studio time. I've prepared some papers, my mind feels utterly blank Tomorrow I'll start

the angry farmer's houses

I don't want to let go of that summer feeling yet ... Next to the school of Gerlesborg there's some very interesting looking worn down buildings. Perfect motives. But you shouldn't venture too close. The angry farmer - the owner - might come bursting out screaming it's private property and wave with a shotgun. Some people said they've seen dead cats lying outside the barns. Others said theres' a tragic family history behind his crazy behaviour and that the farmer hasn't always been like that. But first when I came there I didn't know this and went close to take photos to show you. Luckily the angry farmer didn't show up ...

The Tempest exhibited

The installation/exhibit took place by the old Fortress Älvsborg (ruins). First we had been thinking about using the whole place, but decided on mostly being under the roof protecting what's left of the fortress wall. Great place for exhibiting pieces loosely based on the Tempest! What I love the most about screenprinting is the possibility to mimic the expression of other techniques and the possibility to be applied to almost any kind of flat surface. You can do almost anything with screenprinting, a point proven by my students in this exhibition. I so enjoyed teaching this course - Thank you girls!

Moa Sundkvist

Maria Kultala Maria Kultala

Elin Engström

Kerstin Färlin

Milena Karlsson

Tina Damgaard

Tina Damgaard

Vicky Lagsten

Julia Brynielsson